Former President Barack Obama has been on the campaign trail for Vice President Kamala Harris, and two weeks ahead of the Nov. 5 election, he was in Detroit, Michigan.
The large crowd of Harris supporters were in for a treat as Marshall Mathers aka Eminem — who is a Detroit native — made a rare appearance in the political arena. The rapper has been a longtime supporter of Harris and endorsed her and Biden leading up to the 2020 elections. Eminem introduced Obama, and the latter entered the stage bopping his head to the rapper’s 2002 song “Lose Yourself.”
Obama prefaced his speech by saying that he’s done a lot of rallies and typically didn’t get nervous, but following Eminem’s speech left him “feeling some kind of way.” He then transitioned to the opening verse of “Lose Yourself,” reciting, “I notice my palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, vomit on my sweater already, mom’s spaghetti, I’m nervous but on the surface I look calm and ready to drop bombs but I keep on forgetting…” much to the crowd’s delight. Obama, who was all smiles, then started chanting the opening beat to Eminem’s song before saying, “Love me some Eminem.”
Obama is, indeed, an Eminem fan, and he revealed in a 2020 Instagram post that during the 2008 presidential campaign, he hyped himself by listening to rap songs, which he said allowed him to get in the right head space. Particularly, he loved Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and Jay-Z’s “My 1st Song,” songs that he said were about “defying the odds and putting it all on the line.” Eminem showed his appreciation by reposting it on his Instagram stories and adding a praying hands emoji.
Eminem has been critical of Donald Trump over the years
At the BET Awards in 2017, Eminem performed a four-minute-long freestyle rap dissing then-President Donald Trump and rapping, “Any fan of mine who’s a supporter of his / I’m drawing in the sand a line, you’re either for or against.” Eminem touched on several topics during the performance, all while rhyming. He’s also included Trump disses in some of his songs and told Vulture in a 2017 interview that Trump makes his “blood boil” and that he “sold people a dream that’s never coming true.”
The rapper may have later regretted his words though, as he said as much in the lyrics of the song “The Ringer” from his album Kamikaze. In it, Eminem questioned whether alienating some of his fans was worth the diss, as he saw his fan base decrease after his anti-Trump statements. Apparently, the Secret Service also questioned him about his “threatening lyrics” and he was deemed as “exhibiting inappropriate behavior,” per a 40-page file obtained by BuzzFeed News after filing a Freedom of Information Act request to the Secret Service.
He issued the following statement before welcoming Obama.
“I don’t think anyone wants an America where people are worried about retribution of what people will do if you make your opinion known. I think Vice President Harris supports a future for this country where these freedoms and many others will be protected and upheld.”
Eminem stayed away from dissing Trump directly. Instead, he encouraged the Michigan crowd to go out and vote, and that he thinks Harris is the right choice.