Eminem has told Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy to stop rapping his songs at campaign events.
The US rapper sent a cease and desist letter to Mr Ramaswamy’s campaign team last week via his music licenser BMI.
It came after the 38-year-old, who is hoping to become the Republican party’s presidential candidate in 2024, performed an impromptu rendition of Lose Yourself at the Iowa State Fair.
Mr Ramaswamy is the youngest major Republican candidate in history and is vying against Donald Trump for the Republican nomination – despite having no political experience.
Trump, the former president, is by far the favourite to be selected as the Republican to take on incumbent Democrat president Joe Biden next year – even though he is facing a range of charges in the US courts.
‘We will leave the rapping to the real slim shady’
In the letter, which was reported first by the Daily Mail, BMI told Mr Ramaswamy’s campaign that it will no longer license Eminem‘s music for use by Mr Ramaswamy’s campaign.
“BMI has received a communication from Marshall B. Mathers, III, professionally known as Eminem, objecting to the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign’s use of Eminem’s musical composition,” BMI said in the letter.
It revoked the campaign’s licence to use Eminem’s music.
Mr Ramaswamy appeared to agree to the request. “To the American people’s chagrin, we will have to leave the rapping to the real slim shady,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the campaign, told NBC in a text message.
Mr Ramaswamy responded to the situation on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Will The REAL Slim Shady Please Stand Up? He didn’t just say what I think he did, did he?” he wrote, referring to another one of Eminem’s songs.
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The Republican hopeful was at the centre of many of the most dramatic moments of last week’s first Republican primary debate.
Mr Ramaswamy, a fierce Trump defender, faced heat from his more experienced rivals, who appeared to view him as more of a threat than Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has been trailing Trump in a distant second for a long time in the Republican primary polls.
Mr Ramaswamy isn’t the first presidential candidate to get pushback from artists over the use of their music.
In 2015, Neil Young’s manager said Trump was not authorised to use Rockin’ in the Free World, while in 2000 George W. Bush was asked to stop playing the 1989 hit I Won’t Back Down by Tom Petty.
