“Nowhere Fast” originally appeared on his late 2017 album Revival. On March 16th, 2018 he released an extended version which opens with an additional verse concerning school shootings and gun violence. It takes aim at the NRA and how the government representatives are mere puppets to the gun lobby.
Another line in the song, which was also in the original version is “You can’t tell us nothin’ / Hard-headed and we’re stubborn / So, one ear and out the other / When we’re young, we’re young”. That lyric resonates in light of the Stoneman Douglas students and other youth activists who refuse to take no for an answer. They are stubborn and hard-headed in the best possible way and that stubborn refusal to accept the status quo may very well be the catalyst to lasting change. Even though the idea of “Nowhere Fast” may appear bleak, the references to the next generation hold out hope for positive change.
Recently there as been much written about Eminem’s increased social consciousness, but him writing political tunes is not new. I previously written about this with the daily dose of protest for his 2004 song Mosh.