New Documents Prove Eminem Was Visited by Secret Service After Rapping About Ivanka Trump: Report
Though Eminem has pushed the envelope for decades with his polarizing and often thought-provoking lyrics, it was a 2017 bar about President Trump's daughter that reportedly earned him a visit from the Secret Service.
According to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News on Thursday (Oct. 24), Eminem was interviewed by the Secret Service for his 2017 Revival cut, "Framed." The documents reportedly state that it was actually a TMZ employee who alerted the White House of the lyrics, and the interview took place on Jan. 16, 2018, with Eminem and his legal team.
On the track, Em raps about being detained for a murder because of his lyrics matching up with a real-life murder and he name-checks Ivanka Trump on the second verse as if to say she was the one who was murdered.
"Donald Duck's on, there's a Tonka Truck in the yard," Em raps. "But dog, how the fuck is Ivanka Trump in the trunk of my car?/Gotta get to the bottom of it to try to solve it!"
On the Detroit rapper's 2018 Kamikaze cut, "The Ringer," he rapped that he was visited by the Secret Service because of his lyrics, so BuzzFeed News filed a Freedom of Information Act in 2018 to find out if this was actually true. The result was a heavily-redacted document with over 40 pages detailing the interview with Eminem and the Secret Service's reasons for the investigation.
According to the report, a TMZ employee was seeking comment from the Secret Service on the lyrics and sent them an email on Dec. 15, 2017—the day Eminen's Revival album was released. This sparked the investigation, and to support their research, the documents included a 2017 Vulture interview in which Eminem says Trump "makes my blood boil," as well as referenced his 2017 BET Awards freestyle where he dissed the POTUS.
“This is not the first time MATHERS made threatening comments towards POTUS and his family," the documents state. "In June 2017, MATHERS freestyled comments that were threatening in nature towards POTUS.”
The documents show that the Secret Service's Protective Intelligence and Assessment Division conducted a background check on Eminem, and began the process to schedule an interview by reaching out to his attorneys on Dec. 20, 2017.
The result was inconclusive. According to the documents, their findings were discussed during a Secret Service meeting two days later, where “it was determined that this case will be NON-REFERRED” to a federal prosecutor.
Aside from mentioning the visit in his lyrics, Eminem also discussed the visit during an interview with Shade45 host Sway Calloway.
"They came to my studio," Em told Sway in the 2018 interview. "They was just basically asking me questions about my lyrics to see what the intent was behind them, and if I was making an actual threat or just expressing myself."
In recent Eminem news, a video uploaded to his YouTube account in September appears to hint toward a new album on the way. The rapper has not yet confirmed he's releasing new music.
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