The first time I heard Macklemore, it was in a sweaty college bar with cheap drinks and a bad sound system. This was in 2012; I had just started university and Macklemore’s first—and, arguably, only—big hit, “Thrift Shop,” was ubiquitous. It was drummed into me everywhere and anywhere. I didn’t care for it, particularly. I cared for it even less when, the following year, Macklemore was performing the song onstage while invoking Jewish stereotypes by wearing a fake nose that would make Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein blush. And I cared least of all when he apologized, said he hadn’t meant it, and added a link to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to his website.
In the 14 years since I was first subjected to his music, Macklemore hasn’t done anything culturally significant. But a few years ago the rapper, who does his best every day to stretch the definition of rap to its breaking point, worked out that his path to continued relevancy lay not in music but social activism. Since October 7, like many in the music industry, Macklemore has discovered the Palestinian cause, and thrown his whole self into it.
In 2024, for example, he wrote a song dedicated to the violent protesters at Columbia University titled “Hind’s Hall,” which included such profound lyrics as: “I learned a lesson from Cube and Eazy-E. What was it again? Oh yeah, fuck the police.” That same year, while speaking at a pro-Palestinian event, he got a little carried away and shouted, “Fuck America.”
And last week, while opening for Ed Sheeran on a U.S. tour, Macklemore opened with a “Free Palestine” speech. Some people were outraged and launched a petition, calling for his removal from the remaining dates of Sheeran’s stadium tour. Over the weekend, the noise grew and Robert Kraft, well-meaning antisemitism activist and owner of the New England Patriots, rallied a group of NFL owners to block Macklemore from performing at their stadiums. “Based on Macklemore’s recent actions, material shared from the stage during Ed Sheeran’s shows in New Jersey, and a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery that we believe has been deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community, we determined that his participation in the September 25 and 26 concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line,” wrote Kraft.
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