Former President Barack Obama was front and center at Tuesday’s campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Detroit but was admittedly nervous to follow hometown hero Eminem — who introduced Obama and even inspired him to rap his biggest hit.
“I gotta say, 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 said at the lectern before segueing into Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and enthusiastically personalizing the song’s opening lines.
“I notice my palms are sweaty,” Obama started to audible recognition. “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!”
The former president laughingly waved off the cheering crowd before sheepishly pretending to walk away from the lectern, but returned to complete his duties in campaigning for Harris, who is neck and neck with GOP nominee Donald Trump in polls in the battleground state.
Eminem has released multiple takedowns of Trump, including a 2016 track that called him a “fucking loose cannon,” another rap in 2017, and mentions in his 2018 album “Kamikaze.”
For Eminem, whose self-titled 2000 effort “The Marshall Mathers LP” catapulted him into superstardom, nothing could be more important than stopping Trump for a second time — as he noted in his brief introduction Tuesday after urging people to “get out and vote.”
“I think it’s important to use your voice,” he said. “I also think that people shouldn’t be afraid to express their opinions, and I don’t think anyone wants an America where people are worried about retribution, or what people will do if you make your opinion known.”
Trump has recently proposed that the military should handle “radical left lunatics” and whomever he considers an “enemy from within” in case of civil unrest following November’s election.
“I think Vice President Harris supports a future for this country where these freedoms and many others will be protected and upheld,” Eminem said Tuesday.