In August 2018, Eminem announced the surprise release of his new album, Kamikaze, in a tweet, delighting his fans with 13 fiery new raps, just eight months after he dropped his last album, Revival.
Kamikaze’s lead track, “The Ringer,” immediately attracted attention on social media due to lyrics in which Eminem, a fierce critic of President Donald Trump, claimed he was visited by the Secret Service: “‘Cause Agent Orange just sent the Secret Service / To meet in person to see if I really think of hurtin’ him / Or ask if I’m linked to terrorists / I said, ‘Only when it comes to ink and lyricists.'”
At the time, the Secret Service refused to say whether agents had indeed visited Eminem, citing their policy of not commenting on or confirming “the absence or existence of specific investigations.”
So last year BuzzFeed News filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Secret Service to find out if agents really were sent to speak with Eminem.
This week, the agency turned over 40 pages of documents that prove they did in fact interview the rapper. It turns out their interest in speaking with him was based on “threatening lyrics” from his rap “Framed” that appeared on Revival. The Secret Service characterized Eminem as “exhibiting inappropriate behavior” and noted that he, via the rap, “threatens protectee.”
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According to the documents, on Dec. 15, 2017, the day Revival was released, “a concerned citizen reported Marshall Mathers the rapper ‘Eminem’ had a new song called ‘Framed’ with an inappropriate comment towards President Donald Trump and a threatening comment towards Ivanka Trump.”
The “concerned citizen” was a TMZ employee, according to the documents. They sent the Secret Service an email with a link to an article in the Hill about the song. “I want to know if your agency is investigating Eminem for his threatening lyrics about First daughter Ivanka Trump,” the person wrote.
It appears the TMZ employee was seeking comment from the Secret Service. The documents do not reveal the agency received correspondence from any other individual about the song. Hours before the email was sent, TMZ had published a story about Eminem’s lyrics criticizing Trump. TMZ did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
The Secret Service investigative documents, which are heavily redacted, go on to say, “the song was about a murder that he could remember and must be ‘framed’ with the specific lyrics, ‘Donald Duck’s on as the Tonka Truck in the yard. But dog, how the fuck is Ivanka Trump in the trunk of my car? … ‘ cause I feel somewhat responsible for the dumb little blonde Girl, that motherfuckin ‘ baton twirler that got dumped in the pond, Second murder with no recollection of it…”
The documents also note, “This is not the first time MATHERS made threatening comments towards POTUS and his family. In June 2017, MATHERS freestyled comments that were threatening in nature towards POTUS.”