Eminem's beef with New Zealand's National Party continued Wednesday, with the rapper taking his lawsuit against them to the country's highest court.
In 2017, a court ordered New Zealand's conservative National Party to pay Em's Eight Mile Style record label the equivalent of $400,816.34 ($NZ600,000) for parodying the rapper's Oscar-winning track "Lose Yourself" in a 2014 campaign ad. But, according to the Australian Associated Press, after an appeals court dropped the amount owed to just $152,327.05 ($NZ225,000) Eminem decided to up the stakes by challenging the case in New Zealand's Supreme Court.
Per reports, Em filed his appeal of the appeal last month. But, the court still has to decide that the case has enough merit to be heard. To show the court the magnitude of the record, in the documents filed the song co-composer Jeff Bass described "Lose Yourself" as the "most valuable" song in Eight Mile Style's catalog. Also, Eight Mile Style restates that since forming the company in 2002, "Lose Yourself" has never been cleared for political campaign use.
The National Party's decision to use a song titled "Eminem-esque" on the campaign trail could be a result of how popular the rapper is in the country. Just this year at his March 2 concert in Wellington, New Zealand, the Detroit rapper broke the Westpac Stadium attendance record. Slim Shady drew in 46,474 fans for a show featuring Em, Royce Da 5'9, and Boogie, shattering the previous record of 42,500 people.
