Eminem’s second Revival single “Untouchable” is as lyrically and conceptually dense as fans anticipated. On the track, the Shady Records boss delivers layers of character-building (first from a racist white cop’s perspective and later from a black man’s), bars about police brutality, and sociopolitical commentary.

Nestled amongst this complexity is a strange and mispronounced reference to South African electro-rap group Die Antwoord (actually pronounced as “dee-AHNT-voort”):

I’d rather hear ‘em say “Die N-word” than Die Antwoord

Ninja, now it’s better disguised banter

But that’s life, strapped 'cause we’re strapped financially

And can’t find answers

Die Antwoord offered its own response to Em’s name-drop soon after, with group member Yolandi Visser asking how Eminem would like it if they purposely mispronounced his name for cheap insults:

In a characteristically South African accent, she flipped his name to “Ee-minem” for a short freestyle:

Ee-minem went to jail

And got a bit of semen in his bum

And was never seen again

Things haven’t gone any further than that, but the back-and-forth has left fans confused about why it happened in the first place. After all, Eminem’s reference to Die Antwoord certainly seems random. However, it likely goes deeper than just a throwaway shoutout. As the Genius community explained in an annotation:

First is the issue of pronunciation. Em frequently uses mispronunciation and irregular phrasing as a rap technique. This is actually a poetic device known as enjambment, where an author purposely chops up their flow across lines in order to complete the rhyming scheme. Em often employs enjambment in his raps, which is how he’s been able to rhyme supposedly unrhymable word such as “orange,” something Genius previously highlighted in a video:

As such, his mispronunciation is more of a stylistic choice than an insult. Still, Die Antwoord have previously criticized U.S. audiences for saying their name wrong. They even offered the proper pronunciation during the intro of their 2016 song “Dance Wif Da Devil”:

As outlined in the annotation above, Em’s Die Antwoord reference (from the perspective of a black American) may also serve as an allusion to the group’s history of racial controversy. Breaking onto the scene in 2009, Die Antwoord blurred the line between fiction and reality by staying perpetually in character as Ninja and Yolandi Visser. The duo has been accused of cultural appropriation and racial insensitivity on several occasions. On top of the blackface controversy, their performance art background and refusal to drop character has resulted in criticisms of exploiting poverty-stricken gang culture in Cape Town, a city with one of the highest murder rates in the world.

Eminem has faced his own accusations of cultural appropriation, although they fall more along the lines of achieving greater success thanks to his whiteness (something he’s acknowledged) than use of stereotypes for a bizarre performance art spectacle. On a track that tackles the fraught racial issues dividing our country through perspectives outside of Eminem’s own, a reference to the controversial South African hip-hop duo makes more sense than initially meets the eye.

Revival is set to drop on December 15. Listen to the song above and read all the lyrics to Eminem’s “Untouchable” on Genius now.