I Never Thought I’d Say This, But Good for Eminem

Far be it from me to heap praise onto a mediocre white man, but it has to be said: Eminem is doing the right thing.

After the rapper requested that BMI terminate their agreement to license his music due to a viral Vivek Ramaswamy clip, people are realizing something shocking: Eminem isn’t on the side of evil after all.

But let’s not give him too much credit: standing up to an anti-trans politician should really be the bare minimum of political engagement. And it’s not like Eminem has had a spotless track record: sure, he appears to be Democrat-leaning in his allegiances, but he’s also (famously) been called out several times for using homophobic slurs in his songs, along with anti-Black language and general sexism. In general, it’s a bit hard to parse what Eminem believes: he came under fire years ago for lyrics that seemed to support alleged abuser Chris Brown. That said, that was years ago, and just last year he took a knee at the Super Bowl in apparent support of Colin Kaepernick. So you know, he’s done sh*tty things, and he’s done decent things.

Related:

Beyoncé Will Become Honorary ‘Mayor Bey’ During Her Santa Clara Tour Stop

Beyoncé is already a queen and now she’s adding mayor to her résumé. 

But one thing he’s not about to do is let Republicans use his music. As shady as Eminem’s political history is, it’s good to see an artist with a huge name stand against someone like Ramaswamy. For this one time, and possibly this one time only, we’ll give to Marshall: he did right.

The best part of all this? The Republican response, naturally.