On Wednesday, TMZ caught up with Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), who praised rapper Eminem’s recent anti-Trump rap:
Eminem and many artists make an important cultural contribution, and we need to embed within our culture that voting is an obligation, is a responsibility, and that if you don’t vote, that’s not a protest. You can’t boycott the vote. If you boycott the vote, you just make sure somebody else is in there who doesn’t like you.
Eminem, who’s a son of the state of Michigan, and the city of Detroit, is doing the right thing; he’s doing what we expect artists to do. And I really have my hats off to Eminem because so many artists have made a way to help inspire people to greater citizen activism. Marvin Gaye. Can you even think of the 60s without Marvin Gaye, you now? Can you think of the 50s and the Civil Rights movement of the 50s without, you know, the great gospel singers, you know? Mahalia Jackson.
What Eminem is doing is just being true to his art, which is to inspire and motivate, so I’m grateful to him for that. I love this trend. I hope that others follow suit. You know Eminem could be the Colin Kaepernick of the rap world if he just keeps it up — and we need him to do that. We need him to do that.
The lyrics to Eminem’s raps are often so vile, nearly every other word is censored. The man Rep. Ellison is praising once rapped: “I’m sorry Puff, but I don’t give a f*** if this chick was my own mother, I still f*** her with no rubber and c** inside her and have a son a new brother at the same time.”
Good role model.