Eminem savaged Donald Trump as a racist and warned fans not to support the US president as the rap superstar appeared at the BET Hip Hop Awards broadcast Tuesday.
Eminem, the top-selling rapper of all time, made a rare and unexpected appearance in a recorded video aired during hip-hop's premier awards show.
With a hoodie over his head and visceral anger in his voice, Eminem rapped freestyle from inside a parking ramp as an entourage stood guard behind him.
Eminem in his profanity-laden salvo decried Trump as both incompetent and prejudiced, rapping: "Racism's the only thing he's fantastic for."
"We better give Obama props / 'Cause what we got in office now's a kamikaze / That'll probably cause a nuclear holocaust," Eminem said in a likely reference to Trump's Twitter war of words with North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Un.
Eminem, who is by far the most successful white rapper, ends the video by demanding that his fans forswear Trump.
"Any fan of mine who's a supporter of his — I'm drawing a line in the sand / You're either for or against," he said.
Eminem pledged solidarity with former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, whose protests against racism during the US national anthem have triggered an intensifying row as Trump demands that athletes stand for the flag.
Trump "gets an enormous reaction when he attacks the NFL / So we focus on that instead of talking Puerto Rico or gun control for Nevada," Eminem rapped, referring to the devastation of Hurricane Maria and the massacre at a concert in Las Vegas.
"All these horrible tragedies and he's bored and would rather cause a Twitter storm with the Packers," Eminem quipped.
"Now if you're a black athlete you're a spoiled little brat for trying to use your platform or stature to try to give those a voice who don't have one," he said.
Eminem, whose music is rarely overtly political, made the intervention a year after releasing his last song — also a denunciation of Trump recorded in the run-up to the election.
Eminem's longtime producer Denaun Porter recently said that the 44-year-old rapper had completed an album, which would be his first since 2013.
BET, which stands for Black Entertainment Television, broadcast the awards four days after the gala took place in Miami.
Cardi B, who has quickly become one of the top women in hip-hop, ruled the night with five awards including best single or her debut track Bodak Yellow.
Kendrick Lamar, who triumphed at the latest MTV Video Music Awards, came in a close second with four trophies.
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Read more:
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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