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Eminem Fans Defend The Rapper Over Lyrics About Manchester Bombing

Eminem Fans Defend The Rapper Over Lyrics About Manchester Bombing

One of his new tracks references the 2017 attack, which took place at an Ariana Grande concert

Claire Reid

Claire Reid

Eminem fans have rushed to his defence as the rapper faces a backlash for rapping about the 2017 Manchester terror attack in one of his new songs.

On his track 'Unaccommodating', the rapper uses the lyrics: "But I'm contemplating yelling 'bombs away' on the game, like I'm outside of an Ariana Grande concert waiting."

Twenty-two people died when a suicide bomber attacked an Ariana Grande concert in May 2017.

PA

The lyrics have been condemned by many, with the hashtag #Eminemiscancelled trending on Twitter.

However, fans of the 47-year-old have also taken to Twitter to show their support, with many pointing out that back in 2017 Eminem was one of a number of celebrities who shared a link to a fundraising page to help victims of the attack and urged his fans to donate.

The link he shared, set up by the Manchester Evening News to raise cash for the Red Cross, raised more than £2 million, but of course it's not possible to tell how much was donated as a result of Eminem's tweet.

Eminem, real name Marshall Mathers, wrote: "Join me in helping Manchester victims and their families," adding 'make a donation' and posting the link, which was shared more than 20,000 times by his followers.

One fan keen to defend the rapper, wrote: "Say what you want about Eminem and his Ariana Grande line referencing the Manchester attacks, but: 1) people forget he helped the fundraiser, 2) he sure got you talking about gun violence and attacks on civilians and any (lack of) measures."

Twitter

A second fan wrote: "They're lyrics. He helped to raise almost 2 million for the victims of the Manchester attacks, pretty sure he's not condoning terrorism."

But not everyone was on the same side, with others slamming his 'disgusting' lyrics.

One angry social media user wrote: "Eminem literally just used a horrific terrorist attack that killed 22 innocent adults/children for a punchline in a song. I am disgusted."

Meanwhile, others demanded he show a 'little respect' to the victims and their families.

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham also spoke out against the lyrics, telling the BBC: "This is unnecessarily hurtful and deeply disrespectful to the families and all those affected."

Elkan Abrahamson, a solicitor for several of the victims' families, also said: "Eminem is a traitor to his talent; this is disrespectful, unwarranted and needlessly cruel."

This isn't the first time Eminem has made reference to the attack - during a freestyle battle rap in 2018, he rapped: "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."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: uk news, Music