Eminem has been criticised by the mother of a victim who died in the terrorist attack at Ariana Grande‘s Manchester Arena gig.
The rapper unveiled the video for ‘Kick Off’ at the weekend, claiming that new movie Bodied had left him feeling ‘nostalgic’ for freestyling.
“I’ve always looked at battle rap as competition or war,” he said, introducing the new cut. “And the main objective is to destroy. Completely fucking obliterate your opponent. By saying anything and everything, whatever the fuck you can, to get a reaction from the crowd. So nothing’s off limits.
During ‘Kick Off”s first verse, Eminem references last year’s suicide bombing at Manchester Arena.
Mathers raps: “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/ I’m not gonna finish that for obvious reasons.”
The release of BODIED has me feeling nostalgic about battle rap so I headed down to my old stomping grounds, Hit the link for 10+ minutes of it ? “Kick Off" (Freestyle) – https://t.co/gR49ti7sVI pic.twitter.com/GzSmYlmaaW
— Marshall Mathers (@Eminem) December 1, 2018
Now Charlotte Hodgson, whose 15-year-old daughter Olivia Campbell-Hardy died in the attack in May 2017 has slammed his words as ‘disrespectful’.
“I didn’t think anybody could do this and be so disrespectful to us all. It’s vile and he is a vile human for doing it,” she told Manchester Evening News. ”
“Why would anyone compare themselves to a Jihadist or a bomber? I think he needs help if he sees himself like that.
She continued: “Why would anyone want to listen to it for entertainment? Ariana did a very respectful song in memory of everyone there and that was lovely, a fantastic gesture, as she was involved too, but why would people want to make money out of such an horrific event?”
Speaking of the aftermath of losing her daughter in the deadly blast that killed 22 people after Grande’s performance, she added: “It kills me everyday. At times it’s worse as at the beginning we were kept so busy. Now that things are quiet and we have time to think it’s hitting hard.
“Olivia would have been 17 on November 28 and we had a little party for her and raised a glass but it’s just not the same.”