Courtesy of Eminem

Eminem gets political on his new album “Music To Be Murdered By,” released January 16.

Eminem gets political on his new album “Music To Be Murdered By,” released January 16.
The album features the song “Darkness” that is about the Oct. 1, 2017, Las Vegas shooting that killed 58 people. The song ends with a heart wrenching message “When will this end? When enough people care.”

This video to the song starts off with typical Eminem lyrics such as “It’s like the walls are closin’ in / You can’t help me, no one can / I can feel these curtains closin’ / I go to open ’em.”

Although these lyrics sound like Eminem is referring to himself, this is not the case. More details are revealed the longer you listen to what he’s trying to say.

Toward the end of the video, Eminem is shown taking off a gray hood that reveals — not Eminem — but an older man who resembles 64-year-old Stephen Paddock, the Las Vegas gunman.

Slowly, the lyrics begin to make sense, even the ones that seemed so innocent in the beginning.
The moment both his song and music video went up, not many took lightly to his political propaganda, despite the fact this wasn’t the first time Eminem used his music to promote some type of movement.

According to the article titled “Political Eminem is the most embarrassing Eminem,” written by Drew Millard and published in The Outline on Jan. 20, “Political Eminem is not a new phenomenon.
The second verse of ‘Square Dance’ from the 2002 album “The Eminem Show” correctly predicted that the Bush administration would find some sort of pretext to expand its military presence in the Middle East, and Eminem directly implored his young listeners not to sign up for the Army.”

Many more critics had similar reactions toward his attempt to make a change. However, not all critiques were negative. Some actually went on to somewhat praise one of the more powerful parts of the song.

According to the Jan. 17 Vox’s article titled “Eminem’s new song ‘Darkness’ tries to enter the mind of the Las Vegas shooter,” by Aja Romano, “The track reportedly includes recreated audio of gunfire and screaming crowds and ends with an overlay of real news footage from the litany of mass shootings that have happened since the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.”

Shootings such as this one — no matter how horrific — don’t last very long in the news. Eminem trying to make a change is simply just a genuine act of kindness.

What does he have to gain from bringing light to this shooting and all the famous shootings in America? He does have a daughter that he is often found protecting; perhaps he fears for the world she will be living in when it’s his time to pass. He wants to make a change or else.

How many more bullets need to be laid into innocent people’s lives before we start to make a change?