Former US President Barack Obama has rapped a verse of Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ at a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in the swing state of Michigan.
Obama performs Eminem’s Lose Yourself pic.twitter.com/ZV58XV3mOs
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Rapper Eminem gave Harris his endorsement and introduced Obama onto the stage, speaking at the event in his hometown of Detroit on Tuesday.
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“You know, I have done a lot of rallies so I don’t usually get nervous, but I was feeling some kind of way following Eminem,” the former president told rallygoers after clasping hands and hugging the musician.
“I notice… my palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy,” Obama said, reciting the lyrics of Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ to the laughter and cheers of the crowd. “Vomit on my sweater already, mom’s spaghetti. I’m nervous, but on the surface I look calm n’ ready to drop bombs, but I keep on forgetting,” the former president said, before waiting for the crowd to quiet down. “I love me some Eminem,” he added.
Eminem, a frequent critic of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, is the latest musician to endorse Democratic candidate Harris, following stars such as Billie Eilish, Lizzo, and Taylor Swift.
Speaking at a rally in Detroit last week, Lizzo promised that if Harris wins the election, “the whole country will be like Detroit.” “Proud” and “resilient like Detroit,” she added.
Last week, Trump warned that if Harris wins, the US could “end up being like Detroit” – “You’re going to have a mess on your hands,” he said at the Detroit Economic Club.
Once the home and center of the US automotive industry, Detroit was hit hard by both the 1973 oil crisis and the shift of manufacturing out of the country in the following decades, becoming the poster child of US deindustrialization.
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Around 36% of the city’s residents fall below the poverty line, far above the national average, according to last year’s Detroit Economic Indicators Report. The city also ranked second of all US cities in terms of violent crime, according to FBI statistics for 2019.
Trump narrowly leads Harris in Michigan, as well as all other swing states according to RCP polling averages as of Tuesday.