Courteeners frontman Liam Fray has said that Eminem “crossed a line” by referencing the Manchester Arena terror attack in the lyrics of one his latest tracks.
The rap legend faced criticism from the likes of Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham for referencing the attack on ‘Unaccommodating’, taken from his latest album ‘Music To Be Murdered By’.
Speaking to the BBC, Fray dismissed Eminem’s lyrics and said the rapper was attempting to be deliberately “outrageous”.
“It all just felt like an old comedian who can’t get on the telly anymore just saying something outrageous,” said Fray.
“I just felt a bit sorry for him. I just felt like he’s jumping the shark a bit.”
He added: “He’s trying to be as outrageous as possible because he’s running out of ideas, that’s what it is.
“It’s nothing else [but] shock value. You have to shock to be good – that’s nonsense.”
Eminem can get to fuck.
— Liam Fray (@What_Liam_Said) January 19, 2020
Their sixth album ‘More. Again. Forever’ has sold 2,000 more copies than the rapper’s latest release, although Fray admits that they will probably be beaten when streaming services are accounted for.
Criticising Eminem’s lyrics, he added: “You’d have to be stone-hearted to not think of the consequences of those words really. because they’re outrageous. What is going on in someone’s mind to think that those kind of things are OK?
“Look, shock has a place in art and it always has done but there’s a line and I just think that line was crossed. That’s just my opinion and other people might think otherwise but when it’s close to home and when you’ve seen the city pick itself up piece by piece, day by day, then it gets you, man.”
Eminem’s fans have since pointed out that the rapper supported a 2017 campaign that raised £2 million for victims of the attack.