Woman Saved From Serial Killer Reacts to Eminem’s ‘The Ringer’ Lyric Reference

Amid the young rappers that Eminem takes aim at on his Kamikaze opener “The Ringer,” the rapper also drops the lyric, “Bitch, I’m off the chain like Kala Brown.” The line is a reference to the South Carolina woman who was found chained in a storage container on the property of serial killer Todd Kohlhepp. In a statement through her spokesperson, Brown addressed the unexpected reference.

“We have seen all of the attention regarding Eminem referencing Kala in one of his newly released songs,” the spokesperson said, via Spartanburg, South Carolina’s WSPA.

“At this time, given we fully know and understand Eminem’s style of rap music (it can come off a little unnerving) but she does not want to take offense or feel as if he is attacking her personally. It was a clever line that rhymed and we’d like to leave it at that.”

Brown’s spokesperson added, “Everyone expresses themselves in their own way, and if anything, people will always feel a flash of Kala’s struggle when hearing that line.”

Brown was kidnapped and spent over two months “chained like a dog” in a metal container on Kohlhepp’s Spartanburg property in August 2016 before police found her; Brown later told police she witnessed Kohlhepp shoot and kill her boyfriend Charles Carver, one of seven murders Kohlhepp admitted to following his arrest. Brown would later detail her terrifying ordeal on Dr. Phil.

In May 2017, as part of a plea bargain to avoid the death penalty, Kohlhepp pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder and received seven consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole.