Eminem is reportedly set to introduce former US president Barack Obama at a presidential campaign rally in his hometown of Detroit tonight (22 October), after Donald Trump made a number of disparaging remarks about the city.
The Grammy Award-winning rapper’s stance on Trump goes back years, as he has previously hit out at the Republican nominee in a viral, blistering critique at the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards.
CNN cites a Democratic official familiar with planning for the event who said that Eminem, real name Marshall Mathers, will not perform but instead introduce Obama for a get-out-the-vote rally for the party’s presidential candidate and vice president, Kamala Harris.
The Independent has contacted Eminem’s representative for comment.
Eminem, who still lives in Michigan, to date has offered little in the way of comment on the ongoing race for the White House, but has made a number of criticisms of Trump over the years.
Before the election, he unleashed an eight-minute anti-Trump track titled “Campaign Speech”, describing the Republican as “a f***in’ loose cannon who’s blunt with his hand on the button.”
Weeks after his 2017 freestyle made international headlines, he expressed his surprise that Trump had failed to respond, given his notoriety for lashing out at his detractors.
“I was kinda waiting for him to say something, and for some reason, he didn’t say anything,” Eminem said on the Shade 45 SiruisXM radio station.
He made it clear his feelings about the then-president had not changed, declaring: “I can’t stand that motherf***er.”
That same year, he led his audience at Reading Festival in the UK in a chant of “f*** Trump” during his headline performance, telling them: “He’s got our country f***ed up in America.”
Eminem’s appearance would come shortly after pop star Lizzo tore into Trump for his remarks about Detroit, also her hometown.
In a statement that sparked a backlash from Democrats, Trump compared Detroit to a “developing” area before warning that “our whole country will end up being like Detroit” if Harris was elected.
Addressing the Detroit Economic Club, he said “your car industry is going out of business” but claimed that the “nightmare” for the industry would be over if he was elected. He also suggested that Detroit was more “developing” than “most places in China” and referred to it as a “once-great city”.
Lizzo, who appeared alongside usher at an early vote event for Harris in the city on Saturday (19 October), celebrated Detroit’s contributions to US culture, not least its legendary music scene.
“They say if Kamala Harris wins, the whole country will be like Detroit,” Lizzo said onstage. “Proud like Detroit. Resilient like Detroit. The same Detroit that innovated the auto industry and the music industry. Put some respect on Detroit’s name!”
Harris is ramping up her campaign as the latest polls show that she and Trump are locked in a dead heat, with some suggesting that he is losing the edge over his rival.
Both campaigns are focusing huge resources on Michigan, where the race for the key swing state’s 15 electoral votes is currently tied.
