The Storm - Eminem

**Background**

"The Storm" debuted at the 2017 BET Hip Hop Awards and is a diss directed towards President Donald Trump. Throughout the song, Eminem calls Donald Trump out on his incompetence and insults him for how he has handled his presidency thus far. On the song Eminem also calls out the President for focusing on National Football League players' protests during "The Star Spangled Banner", specifically speaking about Donald Trump saying the NFL should fire players that protest the national anthem as a response to Colin Kaepernick's protest, instead of Puerto Rico's recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Maria, and delivering an ultimatum to people that are fans of both Eminem and Donald Trump to choose between them.

**The Artist**

Marshall Bruce Mathers III, aka Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, and actor. He is commonly cited as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time and was crowned the artist of the decade by Billboard in the 2000s. Apart from his solo career, he has also been in the group D12 and in a duo with rapper Royce da 5'9 called Bad Meets Evil. Outside of "The Storm", Eminem has voiced his political opinions in other songs like "Role Model", "White America", and "Mosh" and has even mentioned his concerns about Donald Trump in other songs like "Campaign Speech" and "No Favors".

**The Lyrics**
"*I'ma walk inside a mosque on Ramadan*
And say a prayer that every time \*\*\*\* talks''*She gets her mou— ahh, I'ma stop"*

The song starts with Eminem empathizing with the Muslim community due to Donald Trump's continuous mistreatment towards the religion. The first few lines also act as a way to criticize Donald Trump's choice to introduce his controversial travel ban that attempted to stop the immigration of refugees and immigrants from six Muslim countries and break the 20-year Presidential tradition to host an Iftar dinner in the White House.

*T"rump, when it comes to givin' a shit, you're stingy as I am*
Except when it comes to havin' the balls to go against me, you hide 'em

'Cause you don't got the f\*\*\*in' nuts like an empty asylum

Racism's the only thing he's fantastic for

'Cause that's how he gets his f\*\*\*in' rocks off and he's orange

Yeah, sick tan"

Eminem then compares himself to Donald Trump by mentioning how they both have a lack of care for everything around them then states that even then Trump is still too scared to respond to Eminem's repeated disses towards him. Eminem continues by calling Donald Trump a racist for several offences including the President calling neo-Nazis and white nationalists good people and calling black NFL players who kneel during the national anthem sons of bitches who should be fired. In the same couple of lines, Em also compares Trump to The Thing, a member of the Fantastic Four, who is orange, made of rocks, and handles any conflict with brutish and violent actions, in order to make fun of Trump's orange and rough looking skin while also critiquing Trump's policies as President.

*"Same shit that he tormented Hillary for and he slandered''*Then does it more

From his endorsement of Bannon

Support for the Klansmen"

*Eminem goes on to say that Donald Trump is a hypocrite for slandering Hilary Clinton just to end up doing some of the things he critiqued her for such as using private email servers and being under federal investigation.*

*"He says, "You're spittin' in the face of vets who fought for us, you bastards!"*
Unless you're a POW who's tortured and battered

'Cause to him you're zeros

'Cause he don't like his war heroes captured

That's not disrespectin' the military"

Following a pattern, Eminem calls Trump a hypocrite for calling black athletes protesting the national anthem disrespectful towards the military while saying this about the late John McCain, a former POW during the Vietnam War who was in a heated debate with Trump at the time: "He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured."

"*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

And if you can't decide who you like more and you're split

On who you should stand beside, I'll do it for you with this:

F\*\*\* you!"

Eminem ends the song by giving fans of both him and Trump an ultimatum to choose who they stand beside and anybody who can't decide should just join Trump.

**The Video**

The cypher was met with mixed feeling among music critics and fans. Peers of Eminem such as Snoop Dogg and J. Cole complimented him and felt that what the song contained needed to said. Other celebrities such as Lebron James, Ellen, Diddy, and the controversial Colin Kaepernick as well as thousands of fans shared this sentiment. Trump supporters on the other hand rallied to defend their president with some bringing up controversial events that happened in Em's past such as his drug abuse and his messy divorce with Kimberly Scott in an attempt to discredit the diss. Donald Trump has yet to respond to the diss and many believe this is due to the fact that both Eminem's and Trump's fan base overlaps. This argument is supported by Donald Trump responding to comments Jay-Z made on CNN even though comments made by Hov look more like compliments when compared to what Eminem said about him. The diss is more relevant than ever especially considering the fact that Donald Trump is currently in the process of being impeached for things like bribery, extortion, and refusal to witness/testify.

**Trivia**

* The video contains some of Eminem's protege such as Royce da 5'9", Mr. Porter, Conway, Westside Gunn, Kid Vishis and Marv Won, all who rapped a verse in the cypher.
* The video was shot in Detroit, Eminem's birthplace.
* In 2004, Donald Trump jokingly said that Eminem "[has] Donald Trump’s vote" for president while he was attending the Shady National Convention, a TV broadcast that kicked off Eminem's radio channel Shade 45.
* Following the release of the cypher, Eminem rapped on his surprise album "Kamikaze" that he was questioned by the Secret Service about whether he had any intentions of hurting the President or whether he had any links to terrorists.

**Sources**

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LunHybOKIjU

https://genius.com/Eminem-the-storm-2017-bet-hip-hop-awards-cypher-verse-lyrics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin\_Kaepernick

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7997434/eminem-freestyle-social-media-reaction-lebron-james-colin-kaepernick

https://consequenceofsound.net/2018/01/donald-trump-still-wont-criticize-white-rapper-eminem-but-he-is-now-going-after-black-rapper-jay-z/

https://time.com/4978126/trump-eminem-endorsement/

https://time.com/5383877/eminem-secret-service-donald-trump/