Eminem is back, and he’s feeling political. The multi-platinum rapper hopped on Twitter today to announce that he’s working on a new album, his first since 2013’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2. Alongside the announcement, he posted a YouTube video featuring a new track, a 7-minute, minimalist freestyle titled “Campaign Speech.”
As with much of Mathers’ music, the overall theme of the song is “I act like an asshole on purpose, and I am good at doing sex.” But “Campaign Speech” is also a stream-of-consciousness grab bag of everything floating in the zeitgest right now, most notably presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Eminem opens fire on Trump fans in a middle verse, rapping, “Run the faucet, I’m a dunk / A bunch of Trump supporters underwater,” and, later, “You say Trump don’t kiss ass like a puppet / ’Cause he runs his campaign with his own cash for the fundin’ / And that’s what you wanted / A fuckin’ loose cannon who’s blunt with his hand on the button, who doesn’t have to answer to no one,” followed by a sarcastic “Great idea!” And while one might question Eminem’s moral position on certain matters—given that “Campaign Speech” also features the words “bitches,” “faggots,” and “whores,” alongside lines about sex so rough it tears a women’s vagina, and a lengthy section on Mathers’ erotic fascination with ESPN2 host Molly Qerim—the song’s subtext would suggest he thinks said behavior is more acceptable coming from a cartoon rap persona designed to express and capitalize on the rampaging male id, and not the Republican candidate for president.
In a similarly publicly conscious mold, Mathers also devotes part of the song to the incidents that helped spark the #BlackLivesMatter movement: “I’m givin’ Daniel Pantaleo”—the New York police officer who killed Eric Garner with a misapplied chokehold—“a refresher course / On excessive force and pressure points / And dressin’ George Zimmerman in a fluorescent orange / Dress and four inch heels to address the court / With a bullseye on his back, his whole chest and torso / Are left on the doorsteps of Trayvon’s dad as a present for him.” There’s also a line about 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, although it’s delivered with the same irreverent throwaway speed later applied to Casey Anthony, Robin Thicke, and the death of Prince.
Musically, “Campaign Speech” is loose but passionate, with little more than Eminem’s words and a low hum in the background. If nothing else, it proves Mathers can still whip out rhymes, references, and tricky wordplay with lightning speed, even when he’s slamming the man who once endorsed him for his own run—on the Shady Party platform, of course—for the presidency of the United States: