"His stage name is Da Vek": Vivek Ramaswamy raps Eminem's 'Lose Yourself' at Iowa State Fair, leaves internet unimpressed 

On Saturday, August 12, Vivek Ramaswamy, a 2024 Republican Party presidential candidate was campaigning at the Iowa State Fair, during which he took the mike on stage and performed rapper Eminem’s 2002 hit number Lose Yourself.

It was right after his fireside chat with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds ended that he rapped a verse of Eminem’s track. In fact, during his conversation with Reynolds, he went on record to say that the Eminem song (featured in the film 8 Mile) was his “favorite to walk out to” at campaigns as he felt it was “young and scrappy.”

While the crowd cheered Vivek Ramaswamy while he rapped Eminem’s song, when the video of him performing surfaced on the internet, netizens were not that impressed with his performance. In fact, an X (formerly Twitter) user commented under @TONY’s post on Eminem’s backlash of Donald Trump.

He might have meant to troll Trump’s fellow Republican presidential candidate. It read as follows:

A netizen makes fun of Ramaswamy's stage name. (Image via X/The Philosophy of a Caged Lion)

For those unaware, Eminem has always been a vocal anti-Trump advocate.

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“He actually is a f list rapper”: Vivek Ramaswamy trolled by netizens after rapping Eminem’s song

Earlier this year, during an interview with Politico, Vivek Ramaswamy mentioned how he used to rap about Libertarian politics as an undergraduate biology student at Harvard under the stage name “Da Vek” which he also considered to be his alter ego.

“I saw myself, honestly, making it big through American capitalism, and that’s why the Eminem story [from rags to riches] spoke to me.”

Recently, during his 2024 presidential campaign for the Republican Party at the Iowa State Fair, Ramaswamy embraced his college rapper side and sang a few lines of Eminem’s Lose Yourself.

In fact, after his chat with Governor Kim Reynolds, he was suddenly seen greeting the audience from the stage before bursting out the lyrics of the famous song in front of a cheering crowd.

“He opens his mouth but the words won’t come out. He’s choking, how? Everybody’s jokin’ now, the clock’s run out, time’s up, over, blaow,” he rapped.

However, despite making an impression in person, as soon as his rapping video became viral, social media users started to take him down. Here are some of the trolls he faced in the comment section of @Ian Miles Cheong's post on X where the user shared live footage of Ramaswamy's Eminem rap.

A netizen trolls Ramaswamy for his rapping. (Image via X/yas D)

An X user makes fun of Ramaswamy's name. (Image via X/Jayroo)

A netizen trolls the Republican. (Image via X/huntthegod)

A netizen asks about the relationship between presidential candidacy and rapping. (Image via X/Synt4X)

An X user makes fun of Ramaswamy. (Image via X/Red Oracle)

Here are some other comments from @Dylan Wells' post on X sharing Vivek's rapping at the Iowa State Fair.

A netizen calls Vivek's Eminem rap "cringe." (Image via X/Bark And Laugh)

An internet user calls Vivek's performance embarrassing. (Image via X/DeniseWaltsMom)

A netizen slams Ramaswamy. (Image via X/OnBakerStreet444)

The 38-year-old conservative began as a long-shot Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election. However, recently, he earned a surprising surge in the polls, as reported by many media outlets, including Business Insider, and saw him challenging Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for the second spot behind former President Donald Trump, who continued to grab the top spot.

In fact, Politico reported earlier this month that Vivek Ramaswamy has been reaching out to the younger Republicans and has made a mark with them, who are now in support of him.

Interestingly, both Trump and DeSantis were also campaigning at the Iowa State Fair around the same time.

During his fireside chat with Kim Reynolds, Vivek Ramaswamy spoke about the climate change agenda being a “hoax” and how various government agencies such as the FBI and IRS were irrelevant to the system, and if he rose to power, he would abolish them.

He also said that free speech was no longer allowed in the USA which curbed liberty in its purest form. Ramaswamy also talked about racial equality and how it was gradually fizzling away in the country.

Vivek Ramaswamy is an Indian-origin American entrepreneur by profession. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Indian immigrant parents, Ramaswamy graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology from Harvard, followed by a Doctor of Law degree from Yale Law School.

He began his career as a hedge fund manager and investment partner, before founding a biotech company called Roivant Sciences in 2014. Later, the millionaire also co-founded Strive Asset Management, an investment firm dedicated to environmental, social, and corporate governance. The anti-woke activist declared his presidential candidacy in February 2023.

This was not the first time Vivek Ramaswamy dished out his rapping hobby. Last month, during an interview with Fox News with Steve Doocy, he also did freestyle rapping.