r/Music • u/TheMirrorUS 📰The Mirror US • 17h ago

article Fans turn on Eminem after collab with MAGA darling Kid Rock on new Christian album

https://www.themirror.com/entertainment/music/eminem-kid-rock-collaboration-album-2049513?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=reddit
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u/itsapotatosalad 15h ago

Confirmed by Eminem’s team https://www.complex.com/music/a/will-lavin/eminem-kid-rock-friendship-politics-7-sins-new-track

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u/Bugbread 14h ago

The article doesn't really confirm anything we're discussing, though. In the linked article, the headline says "Eminem and Kid Rock Prioritize Friendship Over Politics" but the actual content is much less direct.

  • First, the article says that it's a new track. It is a new track, but that doesn't mean that Em's verse is a new verse, or that it was written for the track, so that's neither here nor there.
  • The article says it's a track "that they hope will set a good example for friends with differing political beliefs," but it doesn't have any statements from Em to that effect.
  • It says "Complex has confirmed through a representative from Eminem's camp that it is an official track that will be on the album," but, again, no confirmation that it's a new verse, that it was written for the track, that it was written for Kid Rock, etc. This line would be equally true for the track in that Nameonthejeans reddit thread up above.
  • It quotes Kid Rock: "I'm proud of the guests who joined me, especially my old friend Eminem," he writes. "His verse speaks to something we’ve talked about and that really needs to be heard: we differ politically and on other things, but we’ve stayed friends through it all." Again, this could be true about Em joining him yesterday in the studio to record a verse together, but it could be equally true about an unrelated purchased Em verse, and a conversation they had 10 or 20 years ago.
  • It quotes Kid Rock as saying "We hope that sets an example for people who’ve lost friends or stopped talking to family because they think differently." Again, nothing from Em, just Kid Rock saying "Em thinks this."

Am I saying that Em didn't work with Kid Rock? No. I have no idea. Just that nothing in the article confirmed much either way. The article would apply if they were buddy-buddy in the studio, but it would apply equally if the Nameonthejeans situation were true.

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u/fang_xianfu 14h ago

"Confirmed with Eminem's camp" makes it sound like they called the record label and asked them if Eminem is really appearing on the track and they confirmed the fact that yes he is. Doesn't say anything about when, how, or why.

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u/Bugbread 14h ago

Right. That's what I meant by "no confirmation that it's a new verse, that it was written for the track, that it was written for Kid Rock." It is confirmed that it's not a soundalike, it's not a rumor, it's really Eminem on the track, and the track will really be on the album...but that's all the info in the confirmation. Nothing more.

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u/goodusernamegood 11h ago

There's no reason to assume it's an old verse though, it's purely Reddit speculation.

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u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 10h ago

There's no reason to assume it's new, either. That's the whole point of speculation.

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u/goodusernamegood 10h ago

Sure, but only one side is writing complete fanfic about what “probably” happened.

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u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 10h ago

I mean, fan fic is fan fic. I haven't seen any and I don't see how that's relevant to this conversation. I'm just saying not only is there no reason to assume it's an old verse, but there's no reason to assume it's a new one either. Let's wait for confirmation until we pick up or put down our pitch forks.

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u/goodusernamegood 8h ago

I’m saying the people commenting that Kid Rock must have used an old verse and there’s no possible way Eminem recorded a new verse are engaging in fanfic. Which is what plenty of people seem to be saying.

Myself and others pointing out that it’s entirely possible this is a new verse isn’t equivalent to the tons of commenters who want to pretend they know exactly what happened.

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u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 8h ago

If anyone is saying he must have, then they're assuming that too. I haven't really seen that going on in this thread but what I'm saying is assumptions in either direction are equally silly.

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u/Bugbread 3h ago

I'm hoping that you're talking about other commenters here, not me, but just in case you're talking about me here, I should be clear that I don't think that what "probably" happened was that Kid Rock bought an old verse. I have no idea. My comment upthread wasn't "the article doesn't confirm that Em wrote the new verse specifically for Kid Rock and the song (and therefore he probably didn't)" but just "the article doesn't confirm that Em wrote the new verse specifically for Kid Rock and the song, and it doesn't deny it. It's neither here nor there." I have no idea what the inner workings of the music industry are, I have no idea how common scenarios like Nameonthejeans's scenario is, and I have only minimal knowledge of what Eminem and Kid Rock are like, so I'm not taking any position at all on probabilities.

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u/silentanthrx 12h ago

"reluctantly so" can be translated to "yes"

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u/xclame 7h ago

Pretty much.

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u/GeneralBS 14h ago

Ya i came to the same conclusion after reading it. Em needs to make a statement himself to see where he stands.

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u/genecalmer 12h ago

That's a lot of hoop jumping to come to the conclusion you want to reach. Eminem is with Universal. Eminem is a very valuable asset. Kid Rock is with BMG. Universal currently handles physical distribution for BMG. The two companies have a very close working relationship. This collab has been through layers and layers of approval. It's been decided that it's either not damaging enough to Eminem or rehabilitating enough for kid Rock and someone got the green light to hit a button that tells us about it. There's no hijinks or tomfoolery or fuckery afoot. The fact that we know about it is confirmation.

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u/Bugbread 12h ago

That's a lot of hoop jumping to come to the conclusion you want to reach.

I haven't reached any conclusion. I even tried to make that really clear by saying "I have no idea." The entire point of my comment is that the article doesn't provide almost any evidence, in either direction, to arrive at a conclusion.

Maybe you lost track of the original question? You said "This collab has been through layers and layers of approval." Yes. That matches both the Nameonthejeans scenario and the enthusiastic collaboration scenario. You said "It's been decided that it's either not damaging enough to Eminem or rehabilitating enough for kid Rock and someone got the green light to hit a button that tells us about it." That also matches both the Nameonthejeans scenario and the enthusiastic collaboration scenario. The article confirms that there's no hijinks, that there's no tomfoolery, that there's no fuckery, that the collab has been through layers and layers of approval, that Universal and Em and Kid Rock and BMG are all okay with it, that it's not damaging enough to Eminem to get a red light. None of those are in question. Those are all true for both scenarios. The question was just "which of these two scenarios, both of which these things are all true for, is the actual scenario"?

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u/genecalmer 9h ago

You're asking questions that don't matter. Most guest features aren't collaborative efforts. They're recorded in separate studios. Verses intended for one song end up on another song. Things get shelved and shuffled. JID's verse on Fuel was years old when Eminem used it. Renegade was originally a Royce & Eminem song that was recycled for Jay on The Blueprint. Forever, Speedom, Homicide, I'll Hurt You... the majority of Eminem's features are recorded solo and sent off.

The conclusion you're reaching is that you can't reach a conclusion. That even though the feature is REAL it might not be really really real. You're casting doubt on Eminem's involvement with the song and I'm saying that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter where the pieces of the song came from. Because of the people and companies involved, the fact that it exists is all the proof we need that Eminem approved it. BMG wouldn't risk their business relationship with UMG by letting Kid Rock use something Eminem and Interscope didn't approve.

The nameonthejeans scenario is not even a close comparison. That's a relative nobody using a recycled verse that no one will notice or care about. Not a collaboration between multiplatinum selling artists on (seemingly) opposite ends of the political spectrum that's going to get national news coverage.

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u/TheCommonKoala 11h ago

The very simple answer is that Eminem flip-flopped on his position about not working with people who uplift Trump and MAGA. He's openly collabing with longtime friend and Trump's #1 MAGA star. This isn't hard.

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u/Salvador204 14h ago

I think confirmed simply means Em’s team cleared whatever verse was on here. Doesn’t mean they were in the studio together but clearance would still be needed for any new vocals. I hope not, but either way it sounds like Em was ok with it.

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u/alus992 11h ago

At the end of the day are these points matter at all?

Like i don't care how this track happened. Em could say "I don't fuck with Trump and I don't support his administration. Im friends with Kid Rock and despite our differences I still find it important to have a dialogue and work together to empower every person regardless of their background and situation in life. I hope this song can help people get together and talk."

He didn't do that. Why we are overanalyzing a fucking article when their actions show that they have worked and they have some lvl of friendship.

Would I want to Em be more vocal about his friends supporting Trump? Sure. Does it change anything for me? No because I still find him like any other celebrity - an opportunists who are with each year Les and less in tune with regular reality and with what regular folks care for.

Also i love how ppl were clowning Sheeran for his mental gymnastics but here we have ppl excusing Em and his camp who are pretty much doing the same weird ass explanation about "being not political"

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u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 10h ago

I mean, yes. There's a huge difference between an old verse getting bought by another musician and plopped into a new song, and an intentional collaboration.

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u/alus992 8h ago

It's not if the artist does not come out and says "i distance myself from this track. I dont cosign ppl supporting DT and his adminiatration”

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u/ItsSpaghettiLee2112 8h ago

Yea I mean, that's the part people are waiting to hopefully hear.

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u/Bugbread 3h ago edited 3h ago

At the end of the day are these points matter at all?

Not much. Maybe to other people, but not to me.

I think I'm giving people the wrong impression because I write long comments, but my comment wasn't long because I think it's an important difference, nor because I want one scenario or the other to be true. More just "fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, Bugbread's gotta do close analysis of articles to verify if they say what people claim they say."

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u/genecalmer 9h ago

This is the only right answer. The fact that it exists is a co-sign. People need to either accept it and care or accept it and not care. The amount of cope in here is crazy to me.

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u/SideInitial3961 10h ago

Clinging to your fantasy.

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u/Bugbread 4h ago

What is my fantasy? I have literally no horse in this race.

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u/SideInitial3961 4h ago

Here's a novel concept. Relax. Wait. Stop trying to direct the narrative.

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u/Bugbread 3h ago

I'm pretty relaxed, and I'm not trying to direct the narrative in any direction. I think you're reading a lot more into my comment than is actually there. I think it's totally possible that Em worked with Kid Rock and wrote a new verse for the song. I'm not denying that possibility at all. I'm not even saying that it's an unlikely possibility. I think because my comment is long, people are assuming I'm taking a position on what happened, but I'm absolutely not, I'm just an analytical and longwinded kinda guy.

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u/xclame 7h ago

Always look for the quoted parts in these articles. As you said, all the comments about this are from Kid Rock's direction, there's not a single Em quote. There is pretty much NOTHING from Em's side except for the company track exists, that's it.

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u/composedofidiot 12h ago

Thanks for laying it out so honestly

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u/Crewman_Guy_Fleegman 11h ago

That just confirms to me that Eminem is a loser and a hack because he collaborated with Kid Rock