RZA has always liked Eminem, and they first collaborated back in the 1990s. However, there was one moment involving Shady which made the Wu-Tang Clan leader see him in a new light, and it amplified his respect for him not just as an artist but as a human.
Over the years, Marshall Mathers has dipped his toe into the world of politics on several occasions. It started in 2004 with a damning take on President George W Bush and has rarely let up since. However, in 2004, rather than go on an all-out attack, Eminem refrained from endorsing Democratic candidate and Bush’s opponent John Kerry and instead just gave his brutally honest thoughts about those in power.
When Obama entered the White House, Eminem stopped speaking about politics and said he was happy with the regime. This stance changed when it looked like Trump could be a serious contender to move into the Oval Office, and Shady had to unleash a tirade against the reality television personality.
Once Trump won the election, Mathers only got more vocal by supporting Colin Kaepernick, pleading for gun control, and saying he doesn’t care for any of his fans who are MAGA-heads.
These revelations were made in his evocative freestyle, ‘In The Storm’, which would always polarise his audience. Yet that didn’t matter to Eminem, who knew that he’d be betraying himself by staying silent.
“I dug it,” RZA said to XXL about the track. “When you write a lyric, you know, you write, erase, scratch and go back and you keep going. You may even write a lyric, like an email. You ever write an email, then look at it and go, ‘Nah, I’m not gon’ send it.’ He wrote it, got it to where it was, memorised it and then performed it. So that means he was committed.
He continued: “I appreciate him being committed to it because for a White man to say that has different weight than a Black man sayin’ it. A Black man sayin’ it, all of a sudden we’re complaining. A White man is like, ‘Nah, bro.’ This is a reflection that is hitting your children now, hitting your people.”
RZA understood that Eminem had very little to gain by hitting out at the destructive Trump regime, which wouldn’t harm him personally. Still, he felt it was his duty to speak out, even if it would alienate millions of his fans. You can’t put a price on being on the right side of history, and providing a voice to the voiceless is more critical than breaking chart records.
