New Music: Eminem aims at racial profiling, police brutality on 'Revival' single 'Untouchable'

Eminem got sociopolitical at the BET Hip Hop Awards by dissing Donald Trump, but he’s not finished. On the second single for Revival, “Untouchable,” Eminem raps about racial profiling and police brutality.

In the first two verses of the song, Eminem portrays the perspective of a white American who is unsympathetic to the cause of black people. For the final verse, he switches to the point of view of a black person dealing with racism every day. The record, which clocks in at a lengthy six minutes, makes references to the police killings of Walter Scott and Freddie Gray. Longtime collaborators Mr. Porter, Mark Batson and Emile Haynie produced the song.

“It started off with an idea Em had, and he’s really good at that,” Mr. Porter said, in an interview with Complex. Sometimes he’ll have an idea and say, “Oh, okay, let’s just work this out.” So he brought this idea, and was like, “Yo, I always wanted to do this,” and he just built from there. And it turned into…we can come back to it at a later date. It’s a really good story behind that song.

Along with the release of “Untouchable,” Eminem has begun pre-orders for Revival and revealed the album cover, which appears to show a distraught Em with his face in his hands and an American flag as the backdrop. Revival, which features guest appearances by Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Ed Sheeran, Pink, and Phresher, is scheduled to impact on Friday, Dec. 15.

Listen to “Untouchable” below.