Throughout his presidential campaign, 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy has used music from legendary rapper Eminem, even going as far as to spontaneously perform the rapper’s song “Lose Yourself” during a campaign appearance. But it doesn’t sound like he’s going to be allowed to do that anymore.
According to a report from The Daily Mail, Eminem and his team have sent a cease and desist letter to Vivek Ramaswamy and his campaign, demanding that he stop using his music throughout his campaign.
“The rapper Eminem reached out to the music licenser BMI and asked that the Ramaswamy campaign’s license to use his music be revoked, according to a letter obtained by DailyMail.com,” the outlet reported on Monday.
“In a letter dated August 23, a representative for BMI informed the campaign’s lawyer that the label had ‘received communications from Marshall B. Mathers, III, professionally known as Eminem, objecting to the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign’s use of Eminem’s musical compositions (the ‘Eminem Works’) and requesting that BMI remove all Eminem Works from the Agreement.”
It’s a pretty brutal move from Eminem, and it led to all sorts of reactions on social media as a result.
As Eminem sends a cease-and-desist letter to Vivek Ramaswamy for rapping Lose Yourself, a reminder that Eminem has only ever allowed his music to be licensed for a political ad one time.
It was for the Biden-Harris campaign. And the song was Lose Yourself https://t.co/okdIu4qEHW https://t.co/aXIBaE7LcO
— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) August 28, 2023
The irony of older man Eminem, canceling @VivekGRamaswamy should not be lost on folks. He went from fighting censorship to being the one doing the censoring.
I guess Shady is gone again. https://t.co/bf3iRiit7U
— Michael Biundo (@MichaelBiundo) August 28, 2023
Vivek doesn’t want the smoke, think about all the stuff that could rhyme with Ramaswamy https://t.co/cxkAmtsH7X
— Drew Landry (@MrDrewLandry) August 29, 2023
ah yes the famously very chill rapper eminem… a perfect man to create beef with. may he destroy your political career like he did mgk’s rapping career https://t.co/bbmjC3EkCo
— frankenstein’s monster apologist✨ (@maryswraith) August 29, 2023
I didn’t think I could love Eminem any more and then he does something wonderful like this https://t.co/jycHj2swsG
— Kathleen Wolak (@wolak_kathleen) August 28, 2023
Make sure you hate somebody that deserves it as much as Eminent hates Republicans. https://t.co/nhYqCdvC35
— Marvin Sapp InTheSkreets/Marvin Gaye InTheSheets (@groove_sdc) August 28, 2023
It sounds like Ramaswamy will have to find a new song to rap on the campaign trail.