Washington, United States

Rapper Eminem has asked Vivek Ramaswamy, Republican Party hopeful for nomination in US Presidential Elections, to stop using his music during the campaign trail, as per a letter disclosed on Monday (28 August).

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Earlier this month, a video of Ramaswamy singing along to Eminem's "Lose Yourself" at the Iowa State Fair went viral while enjoying a surge in the Republican primary race.

In the letter dated Aug. 23, which was reported first by the Daily Mail, music licenser Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) remarked that it had received an official request from Eminem insisting that Ramaswamy no longer use his music.

"BMI has received a communication from Marshall B. Mathers, III, professionally known as Eminem, objecting to the Vivek Ramaswamy campaign's use of Eminem's musical composition (the "Eminem Works") and requesting that BMI remove all Eminem Works from the Agreement," BMI says in the letter.

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The 38-year-old candidate, who dubs himself "Trump 2.0," has surprisingly ascended to the third position among Republicans who are in the race for the 2024 presidential primary elections.

As an undergraduate at Harvard, his side gig was to rap libertarian-minded lyrics with the stage name "Da Vek."

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"If you think debater-extraordinaire Vivek G. Ramaswamy '07 is intense, you obviously haven't met Da Vek," The Crimson, Harvard's student newspaper, humorously noted in 2006.

Earlier, artists like Pharrell Williams, Rihanna, Aerosmith and Adele had complained during the last two elections that their songs were used by former US President Donald Trump in his rallies without their consent.

The Rolling Stones had even threatened to sue if the Trump campaign continued to use the British group's classic hit "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

Ramaswamy says he'd want Elon Musk as White House adviser

Earlier, Ramaswamy had said that he would want billionaire Elon Musk to be his adviser if he gets elected as the President of the United States.

Ramaswamy said he would want to bring in "a blank fresh impression," if he becomes US president.

“I’ve enjoyed getting to know better Elon Musk recently. I expect him to be an interesting adviser of mine because he laid off 75% of the employees at Twitter,” he said.

Musk has had positive words for Ramaswamy. On August 17, Musk reposted an interview between Ramaswamy and Tucker Carlson on X (formerly Twitter) and called Ramaswamy "a very promising candidate".

(With inputs from agencies)

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