Rapper Eminem released his 10th studio album "Kamikaze" at midnight Aug. 31.
The release, which was unannounced, arrived 8 months after "Revival," which was met with mixed reviews. According to an article in the USA Today, people on Twitter were quick to point out the similarities between the cover art and that of an album titled "Licensed to Ill," released in 1986.
That is not what we noticed though. Instead, it was the mentions of mass murderer Stephen Paddock and Mandalay Bay in the song titled "Greatest."
Here are the specific lyrics from the first verse:
I'm somewhat outlandish they say
You say we're cut from the same cloth
But I guess you fabricate, eh?
You better bring more men than the Latter Day Saints
Manic states, Stephen Paddock with automatic stay sprayin'
At anything that may stand in they way
As I stand at the bay window with a hand grenade
And a trey eight, at the Mandalay Bay
Common sense, I'm a dollar short and a day late
James Holmes at the Saturday Batman matinee
Stephen Paddock killed 58 people during the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017. Several hundred people were also injured during the worst mass shooting in modern history.
Paddock killed himself before Las Vegas police officers could reach him inside Mandalay Bay. The motive behind the shooting is still a mystery.
Holmes was convicted of killing 12 people and injuring 70 others at a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012.
LISTEN TO SNIPPET OF SONG BELOW
We are not the only ones who noticed either.
A friend posted this & I completely agree stuff like this is part of what’s wrong in our world today! This is just as bad if not worse than #NOFX! #Eminem you are despicable & disgusting. #BanEminem #1October #Route91Family #Route91 #CountryStrong #FTG #WeWin #VegasStrong pic.twitter.com/OvmS5RUn08
— stacie (@nascar1854fan) September 3, 2018
Earlier this summer, fans were sent into a panic at Bonnaroo in Tennessee after hearing what they believed to be gunshots. The rapper was criticized at that time for not being sensitive after what happened during a music festival in Las Vegas.
Fat Mike and the band NOFX were banned in the United States after they made a joke about 1 October victims while performing in Las Vegas during the Punk Rock Bowling Festival.
A CBS legal executive was also fired shortly after the shooting for a tweet that she sent just hours after the incident. The tweet read in part: "I'm actually not sympathetic bc country fans are often republican gun toters."
Of course, Eminem is not the first artist or band to mention mass shootings or mass killers in song.
The song "Sniper" by Sros Lords is about a school shooting with lyrics written from perspective of the perpetrator.
Pearl Jam's song "Jeremy" is about a bullied boy who committed a school shooting.
"Suffer Little Children" by The Smiths is about the Moors murders in Machester, England, in the 1960s.
Two songs from Alice Cooper's album "Brutal Planet" were reportedly based on the tragic event at Columbine High School. Marilyn Manson's song "Disposable Teens" is also about the Columbine killers.
Bruce Springsteen's song "Nebraska" was about a 19-year-old spree killer named Charles Starkweather.
Charles Whitman, the man who went on a killing spree at the University of Texas in 1966, was the inspiration for Insane Clown Posse's "The Tower."
The album was executive produced by Dr. Dre. Mike Will Made-It is also credited on several tracks, along with Illadaproducer.
