Eminem has made a last minute show of support for Joe Biden to win the US Presidential election.
To help the Democratic candidate, the rapper has allowed the Biden team to use his iconic 8 Mile song ‘Lose Yourself’.
The advert is titled ‘One Opportunity’, seizing on one of the opening lines from the Academy Award-winning track and pushing the idea that Americans have ‘one shot’ to make their voices heard on November 3.
In the 45-second video, there is a black-and-white montage featuring people voting, as well as footage from a Joe Biden rally in Eminem’s home state of Michigan.
It ends with the simple message of ‘Vote’.
The rare political message from the 48-year-old has received mixed reaction from people on social media.
One opportunity… #Vote https://t.co/sCUhq4dvAN
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) November 2, 2020
One person said: “Thank you, Marshall for using your platform to speak up and speak out. We got ONE shot. Let’s do this.”
Another added: “Been an Eminem fan my whole life. But f*******kkkk no.”
A third wrote: “I’m almost 62 and am a white grandma. Daily I listened to you as I drove my sons or picked them up from middle/high school. I let them select the music. I learned to appreciate your writing, and am impressed again.”
Eminem has been very vocal about his opposition to Donald Trump’s administration. He did a freestyle rap at the BET Awards in 2017 that savaged the US President and then followed it up again with an official song titled ‘Framed’.
Politicians use rousing songs all the time in their campaign videos and at rallies and some have come under fire over recent years for including the tracks without the artist’s approval.
Eminem was forced to intervene in 2014 when a New Zealand political party used a ‘Lose Yourself’-esque track during the election campaign.
National Party candidate Steven Joyce included a song that sounded incredibly similar to the track and Em successfully sued them for copyright infringement. After a three year battle, the National Party was forced to pay Eminem’s publisher US$415,000.
