Sometimes life imitates art — while other times life inspires art because the fucking United States Secret Service heard a rap song thanks to a concerned TMZ staffer.
When Detroit-born rapper Marshall Mathers, aka Eminem, unexpectedly dropped his 10th studio record Kamikaze in August of last year, it was made clear that no one was safe. On the record, Em took jabs at Harvey Weinstein, Lil Pump, Drake, the Grammy Awards, Vice President Mike Pence, and, of course, POTUS.
On the album's opener “The Ringer,” Eminem claims that Trump, referred to as “Agent Orange,” may have taken the rapper's freestyle attack on the president during the 2017 BET Awards seriously:
These verses are makin' him a wee bit nervous
And he's too scurred to answer me with words
'Cause he knows that he will lyrically get murdered
But I know at least he's heard it
'Cause Agent Orange just sent the Secret Service
To meet in person to see if I really think of hurtin' him
Or ask if I'm linked to terrorists
In a report published by BuzzFeed News on Thursday, it was revealed that Eminem wasn't being theatrical when he penned the track. Last year, Eminem confirmed it in a recent sit-down interview with MTV News' Sway.
“They came to my studio, yeah,” Eminem said. “They were just basically asking me questions about my lyrics to see ... what the intent was behind them, and to see if I was making an actual threat or just expressing myself.”
Following the release of the record, BuzzFeed News filed a Freedom of Information Act to see if Em's lyrics and Secret Service claims were true. As it turns out, the agency released 40 pages this week to reveal that, yes, the Secret Service did pay a visit to Slim Shady due to what is described as “threatening lyrics” from 2017's “Framed” in which Em details driving around with Ivanka Trump's body in his trunk. (It could be argued that dead women in car trunks has become Em's calling card, thanks to 2000's “Kim.”)
Woke up, it was dawn, musta knew somethin' was wrong
Think I'm becomin' a monster 'cause of the drugs that I'm on
Donald Duck's on, there's a Tonka Truck in the yard
But dog, how the fuck is Ivanka Trump in the trunk of my car?
Gotta get to the bottom of it to try to solve it
Must go above and beyond, 'cause it's incumbent upon me
Plus I feel somewhat responsible for the dumb little blonde
Girl, that motherfuckin' baton twirler that got dumped in the pond
Second murder with no recollection of it
The documents, a portion of which can be seen here and, as Buzzfeed News points out, are heavily redacted, affirm that the visit stemmed from 2017 when
“a concerned citizen reported Marshall Mathers” because of the lyrics in “Framed.” It was discovered that the citizen in question was a TMZ employee, who had requested a comment from the Secret Service to see if they had any plans to investigate the rapper. According to the documents, this individual was the only contact the Secret Service had regarding concern over Em's threatening lyrics.
The Secret Service did arrange a meeting with Mathers and his team following a background check in January 2018. The interview was not limited to the lyrics in “Framed,” however, but also included questioning in regard to Em's viral anti-Trump freestyle rap, which was recorded in a Detroit parking garage and aired during the 2017 BET Awards.
And in moments we wish we would have been in the room for, the report claims that when agents began reciting the lyrics to the anti-Trump rap, “Mathers was familiar the song and began [to] rap along with the interviewers as the verse was read.”
The result of the investigation? The Secret Service concluded that they would not pursue the case further following the interview.
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