It turns out that when Eminem rapped in his 2018 song “The Ringer” that he’d been visited by the Secret Service, he was telling the truth.
According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Buzzfeed News, the rapper — who has made no secret of his loathing for the 45th president — was indeed interviewed by Secret Service agents in connection with his lyrics about Trump and his daughter Ivanka, specifically in the song “Framed,” from the “Revival” album, and Eminem’s scathing anti-Trump freestyle aired during the BET Awards in 2017.
Agents met with Eminem (born name: Marshall Mathers) on Jan. 16, 2018. In the most entertaining segment of the report, it recounts that when agents began reading the lyrics of the freestyle, “Mathers was familiar the song and began rap along with the interviewers as the verse was read.”
The interview concluded peacefully and was discussed two days later at an agency meeting, where “it was determined that this case will be NON-REFERRED” to a prosecutor — meaning the agents decided Eminem did not seem to pose a plausible threat to the president or his family.
The visit was spurred by a call from a “concerned citizen” — who, fittingly enough, turned out to be an unnamed TMZ reporter — that called the agency on Dec. 15, 2017 — the day “Revival” was released — to point out that the album includes a “new song called ‘Framed’ with an inappropriate comment towards President Donald Trump and a threatening comment towards Ivanka Trump.”
“I want to know if your agency is investigating Eminem for his threatening lyrics about First daughter Ivanka Trump,” the reporter asked.
In their report, the agents included several lyrics, focusing on the “Framed” line, “How the f— is Ivanka Trump in the trunk of my car?/…Plus I feel somewhat responsible for the dumb little blonde/ Girl, that motherf—in’ baton twirler that got dumped in the pond/ Second murder with no recollection of it.”
“This is not the first time MATHERS made threatening comments towards POTUS and his family,” the report reads. “In June 2017, MATHERS freestyled comments that were threatening in nature towards POTUS.”
In “The Ringer,” Eminem raps, “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 / I said, ‘Only when it comes to ink and lyricists.'”
A_Suffering_Panda on October 24th, 2019 at 22:37 UTC »
I love the part where it says "Mathers was familiar with the song", as if he's not the person who fucking wrote and performed it.
DragoonDM on October 24th, 2019 at 22:12 UTC »
I've got a Secret Service story. Back during the Bush Jr administration, my dad ran a personal blog which tended to be pretty political. In one of his posts he stated that Bush should be investigated for war crimes (in relation to either Iraq or Afghanistan, I forget which), and, if found guilty, hanged.
Cue 3 guys in black suits showing up at our front door to interview him and make sure he didn't have any intention of taking that matter into his own hands. They were, at least, pretty polite about it. I got the impression that they knew full well it wasn't a genuine threat and that they just had a legal obligation to look into it. Still pretty intimidating, though.
Bo0ombaklak on October 24th, 2019 at 18:47 UTC »
They just wanted to hang out with him