Eminem proved he's still his controversial self on Friday when he dropped the album Music To Be Murdered By out of nowhere. The album is chock-full of shocking material, and he doesn't shy away from calling out certain people by name, including Machine Gun Kelly, whom he has had beef with for quite some time. However, one namedrop was particularly not well-received by some listeners. Eminem included a lyric in his song "Unaccommodating that referenced a terrorist attack that occurred at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in 2017: "But I'm contemplating yelling 'bombs away' on the game/Like I'm outside of an Ariana Grande concert waiting." The tragedy left 23 people, mostly children, dead, and 130 more injured, and has deeply traumatized the singer.
On Friday, after the surprise album had dropped, Manchester mayor Andy Burnham addressed the upsetting line in a statement. "This is unnecessarily hurtful and deeply disrespectful to the families and all those affected." Mr. Burnham's sentiments were echoed by Figen Murray, the mother of Martyn Hett, who died in the attack. In a tweet that has seen been deleted, Figen voiced her disapproval for the lyric, writing, "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. And before all Eminem fans pounce on me, I am not interested and will not engage." Figen revealed that she ultimately deleted the tweet because "I knew I would get lots of abuse and insults."
https://twitter.com/_/status/1218962234321395713
Figen has campaigned for the introduction of Martyn's Law, which would require venues to introduce more stringent security checks. Martyn's former partner, Russell Hayward, also expressed his disappointment in the lyric.
https://twitter.com/_/status/1218135506011246592
"It’s disappointing but not surprising that #Eminem would use controversial lyrics about the Manchester bomb, dragging the victims’ families & Ariana back into a very dark time," Russell tweeted. "Not sure how popular he is these days but I hope any success he gets from the back of this is worth it."
