EminemSlams White Privilege in Ferocious New Song Untouchable

 Posted on April 22, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  892 words  |  Aldo Pusey

Anyone who thinks Eminem has gone pop based on the presence of collaborators like Ed Sheeran, Pink and Alicia Keys on his forthcoming album “Revival” gets a vicious contradiction with his just-released song “Untouchable.” The driving, rock-tinged song (which is built from the riff and samples from Cheech and Chong’s 1974 song “Earache My Eye”) finds the rapper speaking just as bluntly as he did in his anti-Trump freestyle “The Storm.”

“Feels like we’re stuck in a time warp to me/ As I kick these facts and get these mixed reactions/ As this beat backspins/ It like we’re drifting back into the ‘60s/ Having black skin is risky ’cause this keeps happening,” he raps. “Throughout history, African Americans have been treated like sh–/ And I admit, there have been times where it’s been embarrassing to be a white boy.”

Related Stories

Illustration of a digital brain surrounded by film festival awards laurels VIP+

What Film Fund From AI Startup Runway Means for Content’s Future

'Star Wars: Outlaws' Creative Director Julian Gerighty Reflects on Making the First Open-World 'Star Wars' Game, Why It's Set in the Original Trilogy Era

'Star Wars Outlaws' Creative Director Julian Gerighty Reflects on Making the First Open-World 'Star Wars' Game and Why It's Set in the Original Trilogy Era

Throughout the song his perspective flips between black and white:

Popular on Variety

“As Dallas overshadows the battle for Black Lives Matter/ We fight back with violence but acts like that are/ Black eyes on the movement/ Which makes black lives madder/ At cops and cops madder/ That’s why it’s at a stalemate/ Can’t arrive at a compromise so it’s Black Ops/

I wonder if we hire more black cops, the crap stops/ The block is our backyards, officers, not the crack spot/ Call the attack dogs off of us, man/ You always act all pissed off at us at a traffic stop/ And bad cops fuck it up for the good cops, and man, stop/ Sendin’ white cops in the black neighborhoods/ Who ain’t acclimated to ’em, like that’s the way to do it/ Who seen some fuckin’ videos of rappers waving guns

And know nobody black so they act afraid of us/ And that’s racism, the fear that a black face gives ’em/ A subconscious racist.”

After several verses dealing with Colin Kaepernick, the six-minute song ends suddenly with the lines:

“In a country that claims that its foundation was based on United States ideals/ That had its natives killed/ Got you singin’ this star-spangled spiel/ To a piece of cloth that represents the “Land of the Free” that made people slaves to build.”

The album, which the rapper has teased for several months, is his first since 2013’s “Marshall Mathers LP 2.” He dropped “Walk on Water”  on Nov. 10 and performed the song, along with a medley of older hits, with co-writer Skylar Grey on “Saturday Night Live” Nov. 18, and on the MTV Europe Music Awards on Nov. 12.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0u32FNNV6Y

Read More About:

Jump to Comments

More from Variety

Most Popular

Must Read

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Variety Confidential

A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXKDjqasrKGTZLumw9JonKahnpq6br%2FLmqSsZaedtrWxjKmpoq6ZobKosYyipWaelae8pLXOrqpmppWserS7zaBkrqakpMKktMCbo55loprDqsLApWRqamBng3R%2FmGpsaA%3D%3D