You might recall the story from frankly yonks ago when oldmate Eminem got het up because New Zealand‘s National Party allegedly cribbed Lose Yourself for one of their campaign ads. It was a weird time, okay.
Well, that all happened back in 2014, and it was heard in court in May. The judgement has been handed down and the National Party now owe Eminem $NZ 600,000. That is, quite frankly, quite a lot of money.
Basically, the song that was played in the National Party ads – which was called Eminem Esque – was fund to have substantially lifted the form of Lose Yourself.
“The close similarities and the indiscernible differences in drum beat, the ‘melodic line’ and the piano figures, make Eminem Esque strikingly similar to Lose Yourself,” Justice Helen Cull wrote in her judgement.
According to the complaint from publisher Eight Mile Style, the song was played 186 times during the campaign before the ad was pulled off the air, which is why the damages were so high.
https://twitter.com/jmodoh/status/923009082482495488
This is not a good week for the National Party. The centre-right party – roughly equivalent to the Liberal Party – just found out last week that they had lost government to the Labour Party thanks to a surprise coalition agreement with New Zealand First. To lose government for the first time in nine years and then have to pay the real Slim Shady six hundred large… truly a great, great shame.
Eminem is entitled to the above damages plus interest, accruing from June 28, 2014.
