Lessons still not learned by the Republican party as Eminem sends cease and desist to Vivek Ramaswamy

Eminem has become the latest musician who has seen his music used by a Republican during their campaign trail and has therefore become the latest musician to send a cease and desist - in this case, towards presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy has gone one better though than merely using the music after being seen during rallies actually rapping to the song.

In a report by the Daily Mail, a letter dated August 23 from a representative for BMI informed the campaign's lawyer that the label had “received communications from Marshall B. Mathers, III, professionally known as Eminem, objecting to the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign's use of Eminem's musical compositions (the "Eminem Works") and requesting that BMI remove all Eminem Works from the Agreement.”

Ramaswamy had been using the song “Lose Yourself,” the tracks from the film “8 Mile” which saw Marshall Mathers earn an Oscar for Best Original Song at the 2003 Academy Awards, which was according to the Daily Mail already licensed to Ramaswamy by BMI, who hold the license to exploit the track.

However, it has emerged that Eminem has since asked for that license to be revoked, as the letter to the Republican presidential candidate’s campaign continued “'BMI will consider any performance of the Eminem Works by the Vivek 2024 campaign from this date forward to be a material breach of the Agreement for which BMI reserves all rights and remedies with respect thereto.”

This isn’t the first time that Vivek Ramaswamy has taken the opportunity to rap; while an undergraduate at Harvard University, he performed libertarian-themed raps under the stage name 'Da Vek' and considers himself a fan of the Detroit rapper given their similar “underdog” statuses. 

'I did not grow up in the circumstances he did, but the idea of being an underdog, people having low expectations of you, that part speaks to me,' he told The New York Times in early August. [Eminem is a] guy in every sense who was not supposed to be doing what he did,' akin to the Republican primary hopeful’s rise in popularity while on the GOP campaign trail.