Eminem has advocated for tighter US gun control measures in the video for new track ‘Darkness’.
The rap icon surprised fans earlier today by releasing ‘Music To Be Murdered By’, which is 20 tracks and 64 minutes long. Guests include the late Juice WRLD (on ‘Godzilla’), Ed Sheeran (on ‘Those Kinda Nights’), Anderson .Paak (on ‘Lock It Up’) and Young M.A. (on ‘Unaccommodating’).
He has also released the video for ‘Darkness’, which deals with gun violence in America. In the song, Eminem raps from the point of view of a shooter targeting concertgoers from a hotel room.
The music video visualises the scene, which is a reference to the 2017 Las Vegas shooter who killed more than 50 people attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival.
64-year-old Nevada resident Stephen Paddock opened fire from the upper floors of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, with eyewitnesses reportedly seeing gun flashes before police stormed the building. It was subsequently confirmed that Paddock turned the gun on himself before police arrived.
The video for Eminem’s latest ends with a call to viewers to register to vote at vote.gov.
“When will this end? When enough people care,” the video reads. “Make your voice heard and help change gun laws in America.”
The album has also seen Eminem attract criticism for ‘Unaccommodating’ – which features a controversial reference to the Manchester Arena attack in 2017.
“I’m contemplating yelling ‘Bombs away’ on the game/Like I’m outside of an Ariana Grande concert waiting,” Eminem raps on the track.
‘Music To Be Murdered By’ follows Eminem’s 2018 album, ‘Kamikaze’, which was also surprise-released.