Eminem Addresses Trump Rap in Surprise Album ‘Kamikaze’

With no advance fanfare, Eminem released a surprise album late Thursday, using the opening track to address the aftermath of last year’s freestyle rap aimed at President Donald Trump and his supporters.

The new, 11-song album, “Kamikaze,” comes less than a year after the 45-year-old rapper’s last album, “Revival,” which was his eighth in a row to debut at No. 1. Eminem and Dr. Dre are credited as executive producers on the album, whose cover pays tribute to the 1986 Beastie Boys album “Licensed to Ill." The LP includes two skits and “Venom,” a song that will be featured on the soundtrack to the Marvel movie.

Within hours of the rapper announcing his latest album on Twitter, his post had been shared nearly 50,000 times.

Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, also made headlines in October 2017, when he excoriated Trump in a freestyle rap that has been viewed more than 46 million times on YouTube. It included a direct shot at his fans who were Trump supporters.

“And any fan of mine / who’s a supporter of his / I’m drawing in the sand a line / you’re either for or against,” he rapped, shortly before giving the middle finger to the camera.

In “The Ringer,” the opening track of the new album, Eminem appears to second-guess himself, rapping that “if I could go back, I’d at least reword it / and say I empathize with the people this evil serpent sold the dream to that he’s deserted.”

He goes on:

He also said, referring to the president, that “Agent Orange just sent the Secret Service / to meet in person to see if I really think of hurting him / or ask if I’m linked to terrorists / I said, ‘Only when it comes to ink and lyricists.'”

It had not been previously reported that the Secret Service had visited the rapper, and the claim — assuming it was meant seriously — could not immediately be verified.

Asked if it had met with Eminem or followed up on the rapper’s comments in his 2017 freestyle, the Secret Service said that it would not confirm or comment on “the absence or existence of specific investigations. We can say, however, the Secret Service investigates all threats against the president.” The agency did not immediately respond to a follow-up question about whether it considered Eminem’s words a threat.

In 2003, the Secret Service took notice of a lyric from an unfinished Eminem song that said “I’d rather see the president dead,” but opted not to investigate him.