Watch what happens (or doesn’t) when Eminem’s music takes over a courtroom
Everyone, including the judge, listened to the song in stony-faced silence.
Rapper Eminem’s hit song, Lose Yourself, a long-time club favourite, made it to an unusual venue with not much room to swing to the tune: a courtroom.
This is because New Zealand’s National Party is being sued by Eminem for using a song that sounds rather similar, in a political campaign advertisement in 2014. The party’s lawyers have mounted a defence stating that the track on which the advertisement is based is not Eminem’s, but Eminem-esque, which is supposedly the title of the track they pulled out from a stock music library.
Eminem’s lawyers said that Lose Yourself is an iconic song and “without a doubt the jewel in the crown of Eminem’s musical work.”
In the amusing video above – which nearly feels like a spoof, except it isn’t – lawyers and court officials maintain a professional, straight-faced air, trying hard to not let a smile appear, as Eminem’s song is played. This is followed by the jingle, to let the judge decide if there was indeed any copyright infringement. Do the two tracks sound similar? Listen in.
