Eminem, Trump, and the Subversion of Political Hip-Hop

In case you missed it (and given the coverage it received on both social media and mainstream print and television media I'm not sure you could have) Eminem delivered a blistering freestyle rap at the BET Awards last night, calling out Donald Trump for his racial dog whistling, his petty twitter feuds, and his carelessness with matters of foreign policy, not the least of which is his handling of the growing tensions between the United States and North Korea.

And while I commend Em, and agree with pretty much everything he said, I couldn't ignore my growing discomfort as I went through my normal news consumption progressions this morning. Of course CNN and The New York Times fawned all over the cypher, which is almost certainly a term that CNN has never published in that context until this very moment. Breitbart declared Eminem a 🌽⚽️ in their headline. I'm not making the emojis up, they were literally in the headline. This is hilarious seeing as the average Breitbart writer probably knows as much about rap as I do about genetically modifying corn, but I digress. Actually, Breitbart's actual story was far from critical of the freestyle, mostly just quoting several lines and pointing out that this is not the first time Eminem has attacked President Trump. Fox News, strangely and a bit ironically, has their homepage devoted to the ongoing NFL national anthem debate and tucked Eminem 20 stories down, all but ignoring him.

Media coverage is media coverage, and the slant on both sides was inevitable. What I find odd, however, is the fact that it took Eminem, a white rapper, denouncing the president for the media to notice that hip-hop, predominantly made up of black artists, has largely and loudly turned on Donald Trump, who had long been a figure of adulation due to his perceived wealth and self-marketing abilities.

Hip hop has been dragging the president since the early days of the 2016 election campaign, when it became clear that Trump was using racial tensions to mobilize a very real and very dangerous segment of America into a powerful voting bloc. J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z, Russell Simmons, and dozens of other highly successful black rappers have spoken out against the current administration's viewpoints and policies in their music and on social media, and yet it's not until Eminem appears on the Black Entertainment Television Awards that the media takes note.

None of this should come as a surprise. Eminem has readily acknowledged that he has made a living appropriating black culture, and once famously pointed out that, just like Elvis, he would use black music to get wealthy. Note in the video for his cypher, Eminem appears in a Detroit parking garage, surrounded by black men that literally nod their approval to the camera. Eminem needs black culture to accept him for his voice to have power. And yet, Eminem has now somehow, overnight, risen to the forefront of hip-hop's political mobilization. And while it is good, and necessary if we are to see progress, to see white faces speaking out alongside of our black and minority voices, I can't help but wonder, why weren't we listening before?