Former president Barack Obama momentarily lost himself in the music after he was introduced by rapper Eminem at a campaign rally in Detroit.
“I have done a lot of rallies, so I don’t usually get nervous,” Obama said as he took to the stage to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday. “But I was feeling some kind of way following Eminem.”
Obama then launched into the opening verse from one of the star’s most famous songs, Lose Yourself, from the 2002 film 8 Mile — adapting the lyrics so they were in the first-person.
“I notice my palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy, vomit on my sweater already, mom’s spaghetti, I’m nervous but on the surface I look calm and ready to drop bombs but I keep on forgetting,” Obama rapped as the crowd cheered. “”Love, love me some Eminem,” he added.
The campaign moment during the first week of early voting in Michigan sparked a large reaction on social media, with one user describing it as “one of the most unexpected best scenes of 2024.”
Before introducing Obama in his hometown, Eminem, 52, urged people “to get out and vote,” and endorsed Harris.
Among the northern swing states that make up the “blue wall,” Michigan might provide the most fertile territory for Democrats, judging by their success in statewide and state legislative races. “President Obama reciting Eminem lyrics is peak millennial activation,” Ashley Schapitl, a Treasury Department spokesperson, posted on X.
Eminem has a history of snubbing Republican politicians. Ahead of the 2004 presidential election, Eminem released a political protest song called Mosh that criticized President George W. Bush. In 2016, on the day of the third and final presidential debate, he released a song titled Campaign Speech, warning Americans against then-candidate Donald Trump. Eminem later said Trump’s policies were harmful to America and criticized fans who helped him secure the 2016 race.
In August 2023, Eminem told Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy not to use his songs on the campaign trail after the entrepreneur gave an impromptu performance of Lose Yourself onstage during a campaign event in Iowa. Ramaswamy suspended his long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination in January, after months of struggling to gain significant traction.
Eminem is the latest musician to endorse Kamala Harris’s bid for presidency. Other stars include Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Cher and Usher.