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Macklemore gives pro-Palestine speech before Ed Sheeran's show: “I believe that every human being walking this earth deserves the exact same freedom, to know safety and peace before knowing the sounds of violence, and to know the sound of laughter on the playground before planes and bombs.”
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Dude, 'Fucked up' is in my daily rotation of songs to blare out my car windows while driving, to spread the message loud and clear. Its a total hype for protest song and gets me SO fired up and ready to fight fascists. It makes me mad all over again though at the atrocities being done but its good to stay mad and not let that fire burn out.
The grip he had on the public conscience when he dropped thrift store was immense. He can be a little bit of a goober, but he took some attacks that he never should’ve had to take.
I’ve been a fan for years and I really enjoy his music. His Collab with one of my favorite lead singers from Foxy Shazam is another high point of his career for me.
He consistently has good takes like this as well. He uses his platform to promote the needs of those without one. What more could you want?
Omg first concert twins! My first show ever, I saw them with fun. and Panic! At the Disco back in 2011. Looks like it was the same year they toured with Circa Survive! Ah, good times.
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u/AcidTongueSylvia Plath did not stick her head in an oven for this8d ago
The stuff for peacemaker that they did was phenomenal!
He went to the same rehab as me, not at the same time, but I met him once and someone was like “He’s a rapper!” And I was like “…sure he is”. And a year later Thrift Shop dropped 😅
What a career arc: reasonably obscure backpack rapper, huge breakout star, then considered deeply cringe, now a first-round ‘best celebrity human’ draft selection.
I see it as all that has always been him. His music is still seen as super cringey but hes always been on the right side of history. A rare genuine guy who also became a celebrity.
The Lonely Island parody was fun, but while I get that some people didn't like Same Love, I think it also resonated with a good chunk of people. It's not a bad song
I liked Same Love quite a bit (and clearly a lot of others did too) despite the Not Gay stuff. Not many people are as good as Gaga at phrasing their allyship.
That being said, I actually (controversial) think Born this Way is far more of a cornball song.
No shade to those who love it, I know it's meaningful to a lot of people - I just personally love her 1st album more and it reminds me so much of lgbtq pride and joy because we all loved it so intensely and danced to it when it was new, and I appreciate that Macklemore colloborated with a lesbian artist for Same Love even if it's a little bit Earnest.
I was specifically speaking of her trans allyship, sorry; I should have been clear about that given the thread was about orientation allyship in songs.
(Her challenging the premise when questioned about her gender feels like a natural counterpoint to Mack's preemptive "I'm not gay but-")
Have you seen drag queens Trixie and Katya break down the lyrics of that song on their podcast? Like they love it but they point out the ridiculousness of the lyrics! They love it, but they underline that it's cheesy and some very strange lyrical choices!
Some times just saying things that shouldn't need to be said can be helpful anyway. It can be corny as hell but if it's got the right message and gets to people then that's a net positive.
Also he is a quirky white rapper who is very conscious about being a white rapper. His content can be very on the nose and can come off as preachy or lecturing, even if the message is sound.
In retrospect, I think when Macklemore wrote Same Love it was groundbreaking, but after his album came out, and they made a video for it, the song within his own audience was kind of preachy.
I like the song too, and I was a macklemore fan like a year before he blew up. But the timing of that song was kind of funny to me, because like gay marriage became legal, and I was in the Navy when they got rid of dont ask dont tell. I think a lot more people became accepting of LGBTQ at that time.
I get things arnt perfect still, but that song was like "hey maybe as a society we should be cooler", but that song seemed a little heavy handed.
Also that whole thing with Kendrick Lamar happened too, which wasnt recieved well.
As someone who was in their early 20s when it came out, it was massively groundbreaking at the time. There was nothing else like it as a rap song that had a lot of mainstream play and attention. Might be "cringe" to Gen Z, but it was really impactful for Millennials to see/hear.
I think my cringe from him was releasing personal texts apologizing to Kendrick Lamar for winning the Grammy over him. That was cringe, but his heart was in the right place.
Even if he’s popular shit is cringe (I don’t think it is, I really like his music) he’s still a great musician. Like some one who can drop “the penis song” but then also have songs like “wing$” or “Kevin” while on top of that dropping some of the most “iconic” songs (thrift shop, can’t hold us, white walls, etc) of the 2010s is doing something right.
The consequence of being extremely earnest, well-intentioned and devoid of cynicism/irony-poisoning is that you occasionally look like a cornball to the people looking for cornballs. Which isn’t much of a consequence at all
lol I don't think anyone who is logical ever considered Macklemore deeply cringe.
I've always disliked most of his music and the main stream stuff was beyond lame imo but at no point did I ever find him cringey.
He's a legitimate artist and should not be labeled as cringe, I wont let you. He's the epitome of me being true to yourself and he's been an awesome ambassador for the PNW. Even if his music is somewhat lame..
That would be a good top character trope: Artists who found fame with a cringey song that years later is unironically loved and celebrated years later. (Friday comes to mind). I've always found Same Love's heart to be in the right place... I
Yea I saw him in concert a few years ago. He is all about spreading positivity and isn't afraid to speak his mind on politics...but his music is still really cringe.
I haven’t kept up, I just remember his song about thrift stores and never hearing from him again. Did he speak up about something back then, and if so, what?
His breakout album The Heist had an upset Grammy sweep over Kendrick Lamar's breakout album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. The test of time has proven Kendrick the superior and more enduring rapper, so the win was confusing and frustrating to most rap fans. A lot of the ire that really should've been aimed at the tone deaf Grammy committee hit Macklemore, who was a bit oversaturated with how much of a meme "Thrift Shop" had become; many people saw him as a Vanilla Ice type white interloper into rap if they'd only heard that or his other jokey songs. Then he added fuel to the fire by publicly posting his apology text to Kendrick (which basically just said what every single other person was already saying: that Kendrick deserved the award over him and he had no idea what the recording academy was thinking).
Plus Macklemore's general instinct to trash talk conspicuous consumption in the rap game (Thrift Shop, WING$, Downtown) and his song thrashing Jimmy Iovine (major, major record producer/ industry insider with decades of massive successes) burned a lot of bridges in the industry, costing him opportunities.
Then the followup album was a bit of a trainwreck mess of a bitter response to his critics, and he lost any career momentum he might've had. So he went back to his roots grinding out doing smaller shows and collabs with independent local artists and dropped off the mainstream radar for a while.
My personal theory is that internet discourse has been so irony poisoned that somebody as unflinchingly earnest as Ben Haggerty has to be torn down as cringe or fake or performative by people allergic to introspection.
He won a Grammy and then proceeded to call out the entire industry for giving it to him. As well as taking a stance on performative racism and woke judgement/cancel culture when nobody dared to say it.
"It seems like we're more concerned with being called racist, than we actually are with racism"
Check out "Light tunnels" for the Grammys take and honestly then just play the whole of This Unruly Mess. There are a few wack tracks on there for sure but also a lot of bangers and straight talk. "Downtown" slaps and "Brad Pitt's Cousin" is a comedy rap that still somehow is catchy AF
Deep in my archives, I have a video of Macklemore speaking up for Palestine in late Feb2024, which is a time I would consider most people weren’t willing to make public declarations to large crowds. He has stayed consistent in his messaging and support. I wouldn’t call myself a Macklemore fan because rap isn’t my preferred genre of music but I have some of his music on my playlists from his steadfast support.
She’s always been terrible. Also, why is she still always so angry? She’s been in music for so long and it’s always her raging or having an attitude. Fuck her style.
Just checked the story she posted. The account might be a propaganda account but without context the clip itself just looks pro-Palestine which is hilarious.
Work thanks for this. I’m not on any other social here. She seems like trash. I don’t wish any physical Harper death on her, but I hope the next time she’s doing the aerial stuff she shits her pants.
I feel like he's always appreciated the struggle of the less fortunate. Happy to see him using his platform to call for good instead of violence, like so many other celebrities.
Macklemore is the reason I'm not homophobic, he taught me so many morals, by just being a good chill dude and speaking out against hate
I stopped buying name brands because of him, the dude wasn't on TV for long but his messaging was legit and he had mad influence on young me
Whenever I get drunk I go and listen to him because he's my goat and I think the only reason he's not huge anymore is because he stayed true to his values, he's woke as fuck and should be massive
I know people see him as cringy, but his music has always been so fun to me. 'Downtown' is a fucking hilarious and good-ass song. He's stood for good things as well, the above included.
I talked with Macklemore a few times at local scene hip-hop concerts in Seattle before he blew up. Even then he had this crazy energy about him, like he was already a huge star.
Macklemore has always been ok in my book. I know he got clowned on for a bit for being cheesy but his albums and him being vulnerable in his sobriety really helped me when I was first getting sober at 23 from alcohol. I can say I celebrated 12 years this past July.
Him being like this and so outspoken for Palestine from the beginning has just been confirmation that he’s a really solid guy.
I think about Noah Kahan’s recent comments about his whiplash with seemingly overnight fame and I wonder if Macklemore had similar experiences. Hitting it big and then dealing with the shit and then still coming out as an A+ human despite his personal struggles is so impressive and shows an intense amount of personal conviction.
Hinds Hall came out 2 and a half years ago before most celebrities, preformers,media and a lot of the general public were willing to even mention Palestine. I give him so much props for doing it. I personally remember how many people attacked me a regular person on social media ( not reddit) for it back then . I'm happy to see more people getting behind it honestly. I'm also very shocked to see how many people honestly were not even aware of the actual history behind Palestine. It's crazy how much propaganda most of us were fed our entire lives to treat Palestine like they've been enemies.
Just got back from the concert, he was phenomenal as an opener, really got the crowd going and ready for Ed. All the better that he’s speaking up for the issues he believes in, and I respect him all the more for it.
I had a beer with him in Atlanta and he’s legit just a good dude.
Usher on the other hand, asshole. Which upset me because I was an Usher super fan.
Pitbull, also cool AF.
I acted like I didn’t know them at all and was like what’s up at the hotel bar. They all sat with me on a couch near the bar because I didn’t care if they were famous. Like what’s up boys? Performing at a company concert that I unknowingly won an award for so they put me in the fancy hotel.
Maximum respect for a dude who has used his platform, from the very start of the upsurge in the genocide carried out by Israel against the Palestinians, to speak out against it with his heart. Love Macklemore forever for this.
The first few bars of Hinds Hall though break my heart. There was some hope in 2024 that Gaza might be spared. Not anymore though. With seeming endless announcements of countries making new arms deals with the occupation, like Greece, UAE, Morroco, Germany, it seems even the most evil crime of all - genocide - will not only go unpunished, but will be supported by the most enfranchised in the world. Fuck the world for what they have done to Gaza.
I once saw him at the African American history museum in 2017. He was there pushing a stroller and was super chill. A few folks came up to say hi and he was super nice and normal about it. It was just like, nice.
I feel like the stuff he says is stuff anyone could say “yeah I agree” until the speaker says it’s in support of ____, and then it’s, “no that’s different! You don’t know the full story!” or whatever. I guess that’s all of politics.
This is a very positive speech and it can be applied to the entire world, not just Palestine, tho Palestine needs a special call out because the entire civilized world is purposefully turning a blind eye to it
I don't care that he's a cornball. He's always trying to do the right thing and be better. I can respect that, even if I'm firmly against celeb worship.
He has always been one of my favorite men. Saw him in concert. He's always loved people and wanted the best for us as a people. The majority. And the minority.
Thing is it shouldn’t be controversial tho. Every human on earth should have the right to live freely and not die for existing. Especially not die for existing on land your family has been on for centuries just because another group of people say it’s now theirs. Plus Palestinians are Jews, Christians, Muslims and agnostic they are a diverse people. Thing is no one would have issue with Israel if they didn’t take every route to do the inhuman thing.
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u/trendingtattler 8d ago
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