ThrowbackThursday: “Mosh” By Eminem
By Craig Clizbe
If you were to take a moment to scroll through your Facebook news feed this week, you may have felt like you were in a time warp. A war torn Iraq continues to be a major point of contention in a heated presidential debate, while Eminem is in the news for releasing a rap calling out the Republican Presidential nominee in October of an election year. Yesterday Eminem got a lot of people talking when he released a nearly eight minute rap free-style on his YouTube channel. On that verbal assault Em calls “Campaign Speech”, he takes aim at everyone and anyone that was clearly only just randomly thought of off the top of his head in an effort to simply show his rhyming gymnastic skills. Among those random targets were Donald Trump’s supporters, and Donald Trump himself.
The lyrics directed toward Trump Supporters are as follows
“Run the faucet / I’m a dunk a bunch of Trump supporters underwater,”/”Snuck up on ’em in Ray-Bans in a gray van with a spray tan.”
Taking aim at Donald Trump himself Em contuses by saying,
“Consider me a dangerous man/ But you should be afraid of this dang candidate/ You say Trump don’t kiss a** like a puppet?/ ‘Cause he runs his campaign with his own cash for the funding?/ And that’s what you wanted?/ A f***in’ loose cannon who’s blunt with his hand on the button/ Who doesn’t have to answer to no one?/ Great idea!”
It seems like Eminem’s opinion towards The Donald has flip flopped. These lyrics inspired us to take a look at a time when Trump and Eminem were a little bit friendlier, when they teamed up to attack President Bush in 2004. This week’s TBT tells the story of Eminem’s rally cry political anthem, “Mosh.”
It all started during election season of the Presidential Election of 2004. Our then incumbent President Bush was running for re-election against the then Democratic challenger, senator John Kerry. The Hip Hop community was beginning to get more engaged in the electoral process thanks to the efforts of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ and Citizen Change’s “Vote Or Die” campaign. Eminem noticed this and used his voice to try and send a message to his fans to get out and vote.
That message came in the form of the protest song “Mosh,” from his fifth studio album, Encore. It was released on October 26, 2004, just prior to that year’s election day on November 2nd, The track took aim at President Bush and the Iraq War with some very strong lyrics.
“Maybe we can reach alqueda through my speech/Let the president answer a higher anarchy/Strap him with an Ak-47, let him go, fight his own war/Let him impress daddy that way
No more blood for oil, we got our own battles to fight on our own soil
No more psychological warfare, to trick us to thinking that we ain’t loyal”
Needless to say Eminem was given a white-hot spotlight, with many people buzzing about the song’s lyrical content before it was even released. So when the song’s controversial animated music video eventually surfaced, he easily became Republican Party public enemy number one. This criticism would last long after the election and Encore’s November 12 release date.
The video for the song was a first of its kind, being made available online on Eminem’s web site for free, months prior to the introduction of YouTube to pop culture, and long before the concept of VEVO.
It showcases Eminem performing for soldiers in Iraq for U.S. troops where a large crowd is gathered around a stage, one of them who resembles Eminem is later seen returning home to his wife and children only to find out he has been sent back to Iraq because of George W. Bush’s decision to send troops back out to war during his next term in office. Finally, at the end of the video, Eminem is shown leading protesters outside of the Supreme Court, and is encouraging voters to vote George W. Bush out of office.
The video’s sensational subject matter helped the song’s impact surpass any other online webisode of that time. It was dubbed the official second single from the album, Encore after receiving regular rotation on MTV’s TRL. However, it also was getting the attention of a completely different demographic. Soon it was also being denounced on Fox News’ flagship show, The O’Reilly Factor, and profiled by ABC News.
Finally to connect it all from President Bush in 2004 to to The GOP’s current nominee Donald J. Trump in 2016, “Mosh” was used as part the foundation of a fictional Eminem presidential campaign. It inspired MTV and Interscope Records to team up and launch Encore with a TV special called The Shady National Convention. It showed Eminem running for president in a mock election with appearances from various celebrities supporting his “candidacy.”
The special that was hosted by Carson Daly and Vanessa Minnillo -Lachey featured various celebrities in fictional positions in the “Shady Pary’s” administration.
50 Cent And Dr. Dre were his cabinet advisors
Ludacris was his campaign manager
Sean “Diddy” Combs was the “Mayor” of New York City
Special Ed From Comedy Central’s Crank Yankers was is running mate, and last but not least, Eminem’s “Chairman Of The Joint Chiefs Of Cash” was this year’s Republican Nominee, Donald J. Trump.
Trump introduced the “candidate” to his Shady delegates before he took the stage to perform “Mosh” live for the first time on television. This would be the largest forum Eminem would use to rip into President Bush with “Mosh”, and later he would once again target the entire government with a performance of 2002’s “White America”.
So before he became the 2016 Republican Presidential nominee, journey back to October of 2004 when the Democrat, TV star, Donald Trump teamed up with Eminem to give the Bush administration the wag of the finger with “Mosh.”
Eminem
“Mosh” (Explicit)
From Encore
Shady/Aftermath/Interscope Records
Eminem
“White America” (Explicit)
From The Eminem Show
Shady/Aftermath/Interscope Records
Donald Trump At The Shady National Convention 2004 Introducing Eminem
MTV
