Tesla’s Elon Musk Just Used Eminem Lyrics as a Reference in a Court Filing

In a court filing this week, Elon Musk, the CEO of electric vehicle giant Tesla, used musical artist Eminem in a reference.

Musk, who wants out of an agreement with the SEC that requires Tesla lawyers to approve his tweets, urged a federal judge to throw out the 2018 agreement.

The SEC is investigating tweets in which Musk asked his followers whether he should sell billions worth of Tesla stock.

In a court filing on Tuesday arguing that the tweet-regulating arrangement violates Musk’s first-amendment rights, the CEO’s lawyers referenced an unexpected source: the rapper Eminem.

“The [SEC] won’t let me be or let me be me so let me see / They tried to shut me down,” Musk’s lawyers said, quoting the 2002 Eminem song “Without Me” and replacing “FCC” with “SEC.”

They invoked Eminem to make the point that “the First Amendment requires that agencies proceed with caution when constitutional rights are at stake.”

They referenced the Federal Communication Commission’s 2002 decision to rescind fines against a Colorado radio station for playing Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady.”
Musk joked that he and Eminem are “basically identical.”

The SEC has said that regardless of the agreement, it has the authority to investigate Musk’s communications.

“So long as Musk and Tesla use Musk’s Twitter account to disclose information to investors, the SEC may legitimately investigate matters relating to Tesla’s disclosure controls and procedures,” the regulator said in a filing this month.

The original article appeared first in Business Insider.

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