Rapper Eminem has sent GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy a cease-and-desist letter asking that the candidate stop performing Eminem’s hit 2002 song “Lose Yourself” on the campaign trail.
Ramaswamy was seen passionately rapping along to the song in mid-August while campaigning at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.
Variety reported Monday that music licenser BMI sent a letter to Ramaswamy’s campaign lawyer on Aug. 23 objecting to the campaign’s use of Eminem’s musical compositions.
“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,” the letter read, according to Variety.
BMI confirmed the report to CBS News.
“I did not grow up in the circumstances he did,” Mr. Ramaswamy said about Eminem to The New York Times in an Aug. 19 interview. “But the idea of being an underdog, people having low expectations of you, that part speaks to me.”
Ramaswamy, a Biotech CEO who launched his presidential bid in late February, is currently the youngest candidate in the Republican presidential field. In recent weeks he has risen to third place in the race, according to a new national Fox News poll.
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