Here's How Jalen Rose Reacted to Eminem Rapping About His Girlfriend Molly Qerim on "Campaign Speech"

Jalen Rose talks about what he thought when he heard Eminem rapping about his girlfriend Molly Qerim on his new song "Campaign Speech."

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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On Wednesday, Eminem dropped a new seven-minute song called “Campaign Speech” seemingly out of the blue, and like a lot of Eminem songs, it featured him name-dropping a handful of celebrities. Donald Trump, Robin Thicke, and Colin Kaepernick all made the cut.

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But the celebrity shout-out that raised the most eyebrows in the sports community came near the end of the song when Eminem devoted about 30 seconds to rapping about ESPN First Take moderator Molly Qerim. Here’s what he said:

My patience is wearing thin/

This is hardly the first time Eminem has said something like this about a female celebrity on a song, but within just minutes of the track being released, there were more than a few people tagging Jalen Rose—who is currently dating Qerim—on Twitter and asking what he thought about the rapper name-dropping his girlfriend. Like Eminem, Rose is from Detroit, so people immediately started to wonder if Eminem had some sort of beef with Rose and called for Rose to respond:

We actually thought Rose would ignore what Eminem said, but on Wednesday’s episode of ESPN's Jalen & Jacoby, Rose addressed it and said that he’s not upset at all about Eminem including a shout-out to Qerim on "Campaign Speech." He did say that he was taken aback the first time he heard Qerim’s name mentioned, but he explained that he didn’t see the shout-out the same way that a lot of other people did. Here’s the interaction that Rose and his co-host David Jacoby had about the song:

Rose: ["Campaign Speech" is] really long, but I made it through the end. No question about it. And I’ve heard it multiple times. It’s fire. Bars. He mentions Molly Qerim, and I have people hitting me up thinking that it’s some sort of diss towards me. Eminem is one of the greatest rappers of all time. He’s a fellow Detroiter. We are 100. That’s how we do it. She’s educated, talented, and beautiful—a public figure that’s doing a terrific job on a really popular show called First Take. So guess what’s going to happen? She deserves to have so many people giving her positive attention and props. That’s love!

You can head here to listen to the Jalen & Jacoby podcast in its entirety. Qerim still hasn’t responded to the shout-out yet, but if you missed the interview we did with her back in January, you can check it out here.

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