Ben Carson Announces Presidential Bid With A Gospel Eminem Cover

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Ben Carson Announces Presidential Bid With A Gospel Eminem Cover

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Ben Carson is the first pediatric neurosurgeon to successfully separate twins conjoined at the head, and as of today, he’s officially launched his campaign to become the 45th president of the United States. Carson made the announcement that he will seek the GOP’s nomination in his hometown of Detroit, and you can watch a significant clip of his speech now over at CNN. The event got interesting when a gospel choir took to the stage to perform an a cappella medley of songs, including Eminem’s “Lose Yourself,” which was first featured in the film 8 Mile. This isn’t the most obviously contradictory choice for a campaign song — that award already goes to Ronald Reagan’s bafflingly idiotic re-appropriation of Bruce Springsteen’s anti-war anthem “Born In The U.S.A.” — but it’s definitely worth calling out, since Carson recently advertised that he’s not a big fan of hip-hop music. Last month, Business Insider reported that Carson said the following in a radio interview:

We need to reestablish faith in our communities and the values and principles that got us through slavery, that got us through Jim Crow, and segregation, and all kinds of horrible things that were heaped upon us… Why were we able to get through those? Because of our faith, because of our family, because of our values, and as we allow the hip-hop community to destroy those things for us, and as we grasp onto what’s politically correct and not what is correct, we continue to deteriorate.

Watch the gospel choir’s performance below.

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