Eminem's "Kick Off" freestyle upset many factions of society, including Christina Aguilera fans and proponents of the #MeToo movement. The rapper reaffirmed his stance concerning lyrical content and its potential to offend during the Bodied premiere this past weekend: "I’ve always looked at battle rap as competition or war. 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."
This lack of boundary was found to be hurtful for those who have been affected by the Manchester bombing of May 2017. The first verse of his freestyle refers to the suicide mission that claimed hundreds of young lives:
"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."
Charlotte Hodgson, who lost her 15-year-old daughter Olivia Campbell-Hardy during the attack, has spoken against the entertainer's lyrics on Manchester Evening News.
"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. Why would anyone compare themselves to a Jihadist or a bomber? I think he needs help if he sees himself like that."
"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 a horrific event?"
The mother is still reeling in grief: "It kills me every day. 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."
