A mysterious new site claims to expose the Spotify habits of politicians, tech moguls, and journalists, and Eminem’s absence is both expected and telling.
Meet Panama Playlists: a new website that dropped data on the Spotify listening habits of public figures. Think Panama Papers, but instead of offshore accounts and tax evasion, it is taste in music.
The site, launched anonymously, claims to have been scraping public data from Spotify accounts of politicians, celebs, and media folks since mid-2024. And it names names: US Vice President JD Vance (boyband fan), Attorney General Pam Bondi (2000s throwbacks), White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt (a baby shower playlist of pop hits), and many more.
But what about Eminem?
Apparently, Slim Shady is not exactly a favourite among politicians, and we cannot say we are shocked. He’s been openly critical of Trump and rarely pulls punches with the establishment. So his absence from the playlists of DC insiders feels more like a confirmation than a revelation.
The anonymous sleuth behind the website divided the data into four groups: Tech, Politics, Media, and Journalists. Unsurprisingly, the Media and Journalists section was also Eminem-free. No surprise there, Em and the press have not always seen eye-to-eye.
The Tech category, though, offers slight redemption. Figma CEO Dylan Field has Em on his workout playlist. More awkwardly, so does disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who pairs Eminem with Macklemore. That combo alone should have raised red flags.
Panama Playlists does not deliver career-ending scandals, but it is a pretty entertaining reminder that your playlists are public by default. And yes, people will judge you for them.
And in the case of the powerful elite, their apparent lack of Eminem says a lot. Not just about their music taste, but maybe about how little they relate to what he raps about.
