(Washington) Rap star Eminem has formally asked Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to stop rapping his campaign songs, according to a letter released Monday.
A video of the entrepreneur, who is enjoying a surprise rise in the Republican primary race, rapping the song Lose Yourself at a political event in Iowa, went viral a few weeks ago.
The American organization for the protection of musical rights, BMI, indicated in a missive revealed by the DailyMail and whose authenticity was confirmed to AFP that it had received “an official request” from Eminem demanding that the thirty-something candidate not use his music more.
This complete political novice, who likes to imagine himself as “Trump 2.0”, now occupies, to everyone’s surprise, third place in the polls for the Republican primaries, organized in early 2024.
During his studies at Harvard, he had been noted for his talents as a rapper, under the nickname “Da Vek”, an alter ego follower of libertarian texts.
“If you think speaker Vivek Ramaswamy is intense, you haven’t met Da Vek yet,” The Crimson, the university’s student newspaper, humorously noted in 2006.
During the last two presidential elections, several renowned artists, including Pharrell Williams, Rihanna, Aerosmith or Adele, as well as the heirs of Prince, had complained that their titles were played at Donald Trump campaign rallies.
The famous British rock band Rolling Stones had even threatened the Republican with legal action if he continued to use their hit You Can’t Always Get What You Want.
