Eminem has been slammed for reenacting the Las Vegas 2017 massacre, which left 60 dead and more than 800 wounded, in a music video for his new song Darkness.
The rapper released a surprise album, Music To Be Murdered By, today. But instead of rave reviews, Eminem faced instant backlash for appearing to trivialize the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival attack – the deadliest shooting in US history.
In the video, Eminem takes on the role of mass killer Stephen Paddock and portrays him opening fire on the crowd.
Eminem (pictured) has been slammed for reenacting the Las Vegas 2017 massacre, which left 58 dead and more than 800 wounded, in a music video for his new song Darkness
The video begins with footage of the rapper (pictured) pacing a hotel room
The lyrics describe the scene when the guman opened fire on the festival-goers. ‘It’s 10:05 p.m. and the curtain starts to go up. And I’m already sweatin’ but I’m locked and loaded,’ the rapper says on the song
The video begins with footage of the rapper pacing a hotel room before he’s replaced by an actor resembling the real-life Vegas killer, breaking a window and opening fire on the festival grounds, then shooting himself to death just before police move in.
The rapper released a surprise album, Music To Be Murdered By, today (pictured). But instead of rave reviews, Eminem faced instant backlash for appearing to trivialize the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival attack – the deadliest shooting in US history
The lyrics describe the scene when the terrorist opened fire on the festival-goers.
‘It’s 10:05 p.m. and the curtain starts to go up. And I’m already sweatin’ but I’m locked and loaded,’ the rapper says on the song.
‘For rapid fire spittin’ for all the concertgoers. Scopes for sniper vision, surprise from out of nowhere. As I slide the clip in from inside the hotel.’
Eminem returns at the end of the video, watching a bank of TV screens with news footage recounting not just the Route 91 Festival news but reports from other mass shootings around the US.
The screens are grouped together in the rough outline of a map of the US as the news reports turn to flag images.
‘When Will This End?’ asks a message on screen. ‘Register to vote at Vote.gov. Make your voice heard and help change gun laws in America.’
An actor resembling the real-life Vegas killer (pictured in the video) breaks a window and opens fire on the festival grounds, then shooting himself dead just before police move in
Eminem returns at the end of the video, watching a bank of TV screens with news footage recounting other mass shootings around the US. The screens are grouped together in the rough outline of a map of the US as the news reports turn to flag images (pictured)
Eminem has been blasted on social media by survivors of the deadly attack.
Stephen Paddock (pictured) opened fire on a crowd of concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas
‘Eminem… your ‘Darkness’ video goes way too far… I have friends that ran at Route 91, ones that saved others. Those scenes, they don’t need to relive,’ one person tweeted.
Another said: ‘I was there in Las Vegas seeing all the dead bodies; that new Eminem song is beyond disgusting especially the video,’ wrote a Twitter user. ‘I understand you want to bring light to the violence in America but that’s not the way to do it. … Now every sick person will … think you will make a music video about them. Your creativity did not show in this one.’
Others have jumped to Eminem’s defense, praising the song’s anti-gun violence theme as ‘powerful’ and ‘moving’.
‘Thanks to Eminem for this very touching music video. No one cares until someone steps up and do something about it,’ tweeted one fan.
It is not the first time the star has waded into the debate around America’s gun laws.
The horrific attack left people fleeing for their lives at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival
At the iHeartRadio music awards in 2019 Eminem attacked the National Rifle Association, saying: ‘They love their guns more than our children.’
However, some have suggested the rapper, 47, shows hypocrisy in his calls for greater gun control.
The rapper shot to fame with lyrics about gun shoot-outs and the sounds of gunfire has long been a staple of his work.
‘I’m a fan of Eminem. But advocating for gun control by making a song about the Las Vegas shooting? Same dude who said ‘Spray em, 50.’ Smh, ok,’ pointed out one fan on Twitter.
The singer has further muddied the message with another divisive song on the new album where he makes a joke that uses the 2017 terrorist bombing at an Ariana Grande show in Manchester that killed 22 concertgoers as the punchline.
In ‘Unaccommodating’ Eminem raps: ‘But I’m contemplating yelling ‘bombs away’ on the game / Like I’m outside of an Ariana Grande concert waiting,’ Eminem raps on the track.
Grande has not commented about the track but families of those killed in the terrorist attack have condemned it.
‘Eminem is a traitor to his talent. This is disrespectful, unwarranted and needlessly cruel,’ Elkan Abrahamson, a lawyer for some of the families of those killed in Manchester, told the Guardian.
Eminem has caused further controversy with another song on the new album where he makes a joke that uses the 2017 terrorist bombing at an Ariana Grande (pictured) show in Manchester that killed 22 concertgoers as the punchline
‘Disgusting’ and ‘disrespectful’ were the words used by the mother of Charlotte Hodgson, a 15-year-old who died while attending the concert.
The hashtag #EminemIsOverParty was trending on Twitter Friday afternoon.
Another fan questioned why people were taking offense at the reference to the Manchester bombing but not at the reference to murdered pageant child JonBenet Ramsey.
The lyrics include: ‘Look at how I’m behaving, they want me gone away They wanna JonBenet me (F**k you), I’m unaccommodating’
One tweet read: ‘if there’s outrage for the ariana lyric, where’s the outrage for the jonbenet lyric 2 seconds after? same principal just double standards, right?’
Eminem’s new album features appearances from the late rapper Juice WRLD, along with Q-Tip, Ed Sheeran, Anderson .Paak and Skylar Grey.
Dr. Dre is credited throughout as a producer.
Eminem released his last album ‘Kamikaze’ in 2018 in a similar sudden fashion. That album included several attacks on President Donald Trump.
Manchester bombing victim’s brother blasts Eminem for rapping about terror attack that killed 22
Eminem is also facing a backlash for a second song on the album in which he appears to references the 2017 terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert which killed 22 people while bomb sound effects play in the background.
In ‘Unaccommodating’ Eminem raps: ‘But I’m contemplating yelling ‘bombs away’ on the game / Like I’m outside of an Ariana Grande concert waiting,’ Eminem raps on the track.
The brother of a Manchester terror attack victim criticized Eminem branding the song ‘disgusting’.
Pictured: A vigil in Manchester in the days after the attack. In ‘Unaccommodating’ Eminem raps: ‘But I’m contemplating yelling ‘bombs away’ on the game / Like I’m outside of an Ariana Grande concert waiting’
Dan Hett, whose brother Martyn was killed in the bombing, said that the lyric was ‘lazy’ and designed to help him sell his music to people ‘with poor taste in hip hop’.
He added: ‘He’s Ricky Gervais in a baseball cap.’
The reference has also led to a backlash on social media, with many claiming the song is disrespectful towards the victims, many of whom were teenage girls.
It isn’t the first time the rapper has mentioned the terror attack, referencing it in a 11-minute freestyle titled Kick-Off in 2018, right after declaring that ‘nothing’s off limits.’.
In it, he says: ‘Squashed in-between a brainwashing machine/Like an Islamic regime, a jihadist extreme radical/Suicide bomber that’s seeing/Ariana Grande sing her last song of the evening/And as the audience from the damn concert is leaving/Detonates the device strapped to his abdominal region/I’m not gonna finish that, for obvious reasons.’
The bombing came just minutes after US pop star Grande had finished performing at the Manchester Arena in May 2017.
The attack killed 22 people and injured hundreds more.
Grande has said there is a lot she will ‘probably never be ready to talk about’ concerning the attack, adding that she ‘couldn’t believe it was real’.