Macklemore's reputation precedes him. Sure, while he may be an easy target for cheap shots as a white rapper who rose to acclaim with a song about spending $20 at the thrift shop — and another one about thinking he was gay in Grade 3 because his uncle was and he kept his room straight — he has also proven himself to be capable of making a real political statement.
Now, amid the Drake/Kendrick Lamar rap beef, he's giving everyone some much-needed perspective with the pro-Palestine protest song, "Hind's Hall" (sample lyric: "I want a ceasefire, fuck a response from Drake"), which Tom Morello has called "the most Rage Against the Machine song since Rage Against the Machine."
Named after the Hamilton Hall building at Columbia University that protesting students have now dubbed Hind's Hall in memory of Hind Hajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in January alongside her family in Gaza after sending out cellphone footage begging someone to save her.
Macklemore's track comes in solidarity with students at college and university campuses across the US and Canada who have been camping out, trying to convince the institutions to divest from Israel. Last week's Hind's Hall occupation was broken up by the NYPD, who arrived in riot gear and arrested dozens of protestors.
As an independent artist (on his i-n-d-e-p-e-n-d-e-n-t shit), Macklemore is free from the trappings of major label networks — and was among the first mainstream celebrities to refer to what's going on in Gaza as genocide when he spoke at a pro-Palestinian protest in Washington, D.C., last fall. The rapper shared the video for "Hind's Hall" on social media, adding, "Once it's up on streaming all proceeds to UNRWA."
"When I was seven, I learned a lesson from Cube and Eazy-E / What was it again? Oh yeah, fuck the police," Macklemore raps, adding, "Occupyin' the quad is really against the law? / And a reason to call in the police and their squad?"
He also calls out his music industry peers for their silence ("What happened to the artists? / What do you got to say?"), and takes aim at President Joe Biden for his complicity: "The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all / And fuck no, I'm not voting for you in the fall."