Secret Service checks Eminem's 'dead president' lyric

[morgan2]

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Secret Service has launched a preliminary investigation to determine if a lyric from rapper Eminem was meant as a threat to President Bush.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/12/05/eminem.lyrics/

[0007]

1. Spooks = bad opera

[private_ryan]

2. nuf said

"It would be saying too much to make too big a deal out of this," one Secret Service official said.

[tridim]

3. Oh lordy..

Eminem's lyric is not a threat, period. He never said he wanted to ki11 the president. I don't like Eminem's music, but I support his right to free speech.

The secret service can suck it. <- BTW this doesn't mean I actually want the secret service to suck my dick.

[Occulus]

16. I do!

Some of 'em are cute! :silly:

[LiberalFighter]

22. Gee if they get too occupied with perceived threats...

who will protect the idiot?

[Kinkistyle]

4. He coulda been referring to ANY president

Like President Mugabe, or President Hussein, but you and i know which pResident he was really referring to *wink-wingk* ;)

[sendero]

5. It's hard to fathom...

... that the SS has that kind of time to waste.

[DuctapeFatwa]

6. I hope no one here has downloaded this shocking disgraceful song

and if they have, it would add outrage to injury if they were to PM or email me the link. Even if they clicked my profile and saw that my address is [email protected] to tell me or anyone else where this horrid song is located would just be sick and unnatural.

[markses]

7. So I start my mission

Leave my residence
Thinkin' how I'm gonna get some dead presidents
I need money
I used ta be a stick up kid
So I think of all the devious things I did
We used ta roll up
This is a hold up
Ain't nothing funny
Stop smiling, be still
No nothin' move but the money
- Eric B and Rakim

Few people have noted how much Eminem pays respect to Rakim. Eminem's famous cry: "I am whatever you say I am/ If I wasn't, then why would I say I am?" is really a citation of Rakim's "I'm the R, the A, to the K-I-M/ If I wasn't, then why would I say I am?" NAS later samples the same line: "I'm the N, the A, to the S-E-R/ If I wasn't, I must've been Escobar." Fucking brilliant.

Needless to say, if you watch 8 Mile, you see how Eminem pays respect to the great hip hop jams of his youth. At the beginning of the film, he's in the bathroom puking while Mob Deep's "Shook Ones PT II" plays. The song later comes into play during the final battle, since the DJ uses the same hook. Rabbit pays respect to the tradition by working the lyric into his dis of "Clarence": "Ain't no such things as --- (and he let's the audience respond in classic call and response form of the African American tradition) HALFWAY CROOKS!"

The moment is classic Eminem. The guy knows the tradition; he knows the canon. T.S. Eliot, if he weren't such a racist scumbag, would be proud.

[Syncronaut Seven]

9. Is that the reference?

Dead presidents? Thats slang for money you SS dipwads. Now go get a life.

[SmokeyBlues]

13. I know what you mean!

I read the lyrics posted above and kept waiting for more. A single reference to a slang term for money that has been around for, well, forever (or at least for a long time) and the SS sees this as cause to launch an investigation into whether a threat has been made on *'s life.

Are we to believe that no one on the SS is familiar with the term 'dead presidents'? Weak, weak, weak! And pathetic too!

[LiberalFighter]

23. Get some dead presidents??

Isn't that phrase used to mean paper currency?

[banana republican]

29. The SS is dumber than I thought

eom

[Military Brat]

8. What a bunch of hooey

Like, who in their right mind would want bush dead and Cheney to really take over?

Edit misspelling.

[Scott Lee]

10. Are you telling me that these nazi morons didn't know that the term

"dead presidents" means money (greenbacks)?

Unreal.

[ZenLefty]

11. The Offspring once made a song called 'Kill the President'

I really don't see anything different here. Of course, the secret service is obligated to investigate any possible threat, so I'm sure they looked into that just the same as they will eminem.

[Tinoire]

12. Offspring fan in an Eminem thread?!

I love you already! :loveya:

[electricmonk]

18. Another band had a song called that too

Coffin Break from Seattle in the late 80's early 90's had a song killed Kill the President. I believe they got investigated after they put that on some fliers for shows in the Seattle area. Give it a listen here

Note to the SS you have already investigated this band and the song is about 15 years old.

[DeaconBlues]

14. What a waste of taxpayers' money

What if Suicidal Tendencies came out with a song like "I Shot Reagan" today? Would they be sent to Gitmo?

[DeathvadeR]

15. Actually he says "I'd rather see the president dead."

So what are they gonna do arrest him for his thoughts? Fuq and I thought that movie Equirlibium was far fetched.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

17. "Margaret on the Guillotine"

The British do it, too. When Morrissey wrote this song (about Margaret Thatcher) with lyrics including "When will you die?" his house was searched by the police (one of whom requested his autograph). RIDICULOUS.

[ultrafoil]

19. Rest of the lyric

'Fuck money
I don't rap for dead presidents
I'd rather see the president dead
It's never been said, but I set precedents
and the standards and they can't stand it
We as Americans
Us as a citizen
We've got to protect ourselves'

[seventhson]

20. Smart marketing by Eminem. Drudge/Secret Service will make this a hot sell

His company right now is saying they think it was stolen or misplaced and that there was no decision to release it.

I think this is smart marketing. SURE, no intent to release. NOW they'll have to. It's go platinum.

BIG picture of Eminem at Drudge' story too.

Funny that before Drudge linked the picture in he had a picture of Mary matalin's mug instead of eminem. I wonder what THAT was about (Drudge inside joke?)

Saying you'd rather see the president dead is NOT a threat. It is just an opinion.

The Secret Service would be wise to downplay this.

But I'm afraid the cat is out of the bag.


Ashcroft et al (the leadership) are so inept and dismissive of their staffs and the men and women in the field that I am sure Bush's boyz will fuck this up like everything else they have touched.

[Forkboy]

21. Maybe I better put away my Paris "Bush Killa" track

nahhhhhhhhhh :)

[truthisfreedom]

24. yawn

*scratch*

[seventhson]

26. You can yawn all you want....and scratch too, BUT...

the fact is that this is a cultural phenomenon that should not be ignored.

The 60's revolution was driven by the music.

And the music will play a role in the revolution in thinking in America today.

Just think if people who are as pissed off as this get behind the Democratic candidates.

The rap comunity is coming together to register voters and the white community is far behind, it seems (except the unions).

This is an important signifier of the tone this election will take.

People are fed up with Bush. Eminem is taking the lead in challenging the adminsitration with his lyrics fearlessly (and making a bundle too). He expresses the hot anger that Kerry thinks is "uncool" (and I think Kerry is dead wrong on this - Kerry ain't cool either - especially when he is proposing all the president's men like Baker for his future enterprises).

In any event, I think this is kind of a groundbreaking event. Tens of millions of teens and even their parents listen to eminem and he carries influence (as he rightly declares).

The secret service getting upset is a YAWN. But the fact that Drudge has given it all this publicity is a BIG deal.

[devinsgram]

25. Poor Bushy Poo, afraid of Eminem,

him and his henchmen need to come to grips with life.

[seventhson]

27. It is just repression and the marketing of fear and paranoia by Bush and

Drudge,

Drudge has been uncannily helpful lately. By trying to make the absurd into a culture war, he is actually galvanizing the left into fearlessness and unity. He is doing it with this Eminem story just as he did it with the Hollywood fake "Hatefest" that was really NOT a hatefest but a strategy session.

Drudge turned it into a rousing success and rally far beyond the organizars' expectations.

This is why I like Drudge in some ways. He muckrakes and sensationalizes and ultimately exposes more truth than he knows: whether it helps Bush or hurts Bush -- I believe the dirty truth will ultimately bring Bush down.

By trying to make a mountain out of this molehill and "shock" and awe America. he epitomizes and exposes the true feelings of many in America:

We are fed up with the Bushes and want them OUT of the White House and their dirty bloody claws off of our beloved country and government.

Eminem expresses that and it shakes them to their boots. Eminem is not afraid to use this to make money either.

So he helps beat them at their own game.

[playahata1]

28. There is also a rap group known as Dead Presidents.

M-1 and stic.man are VERY radical in their political philosophy.