Eminem used the Ariana Grande Manchester bombing in another song (Corbis/Steve Granitz/WireImage/Getty)
Eminem has continued rapping about the Ariana Grande Manchester bombing, going against the wishes of some fans and a victim’s mother.
The rapper was showered with criticism earlier this year when he made light of the horrifying terrorist attack in the song “Unaccommodating”, from his album Music to Be Murdered By.
“But I’m contemplating yelling ‘Bombs away’ on the game / Like I’m outside of an Ariana Grande concert waiting,” he says, followed by the sound of an explosion.
Shrugging off accusations that the move was in poor taste, Eminem has referenced it again alongside the Boston Marathon bombing in his latest song, “Favourite Bitch”.
The lyrics go: “Now I got money falling out fifties, hundreds, and twenties / And I know nothing is funny ’bout thе Manchester bombing / But we got somеthing in common, both of us are alarmin’ / Foul, disgusting, and awful, so repugnant and ugly / I could give the Boston Marathon a run for its money, yeah.”
The mother of Marytn Hett, a 29-year-old PR worker who was killed in the attack, initially expressed her disbelief when she learned it had become fodder for Eminem’s song.
“That would be a real shame if he did that,” she wrote on Twitter.
“Feels like he is piggybacking on the fame of Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber and says distasteful things about other celebrities. Not clever. Totally pointless.”
The questionable lyric fanned fury from Ariana Grande and Eminem fans alike.
I love Eminem but this guy really has a bar in his new song mocking the Ariana Grande concert bombing and then has a explosion noise straight after..
— cal. (@Rxstive) January 17, 2020
Havent heard the new eminem yet and whilst I’ve been a massive fan of his for the longest, I rlly cant stand for the ariana bombing line particularly having met ppl over the last year since I’ve moved here that were actually directly affected by incident…
— LEWIS ☕ (@LewisThorp) January 17, 2020
eminem literally just made a joke about the manchester bombing at ariana grande’s concert… that is just so fucking sick, y’all better not give this man any attention. people literally lost their lives, and you’re going to release music and try to make a profit off of them? pic.twitter.com/mKJo06RL9p
— 𝐜hris (@sweeterheavens) January 17, 2020
Eminem’s latest song threatened to rekindle that anger, particularly since he never offered an apology the first time.
“Eminem is s**t for using Manchester for clout,” commented one Twitter user.
“Never ever make a joke about the incident in Manchester,” said another. “That’s disrespectful and disgusting, there are people who died that day…”
However, others sought to defend the star, pointing out that he helped raise almost $2 million for the Manchester bombing victims in the weeks following the attack.