Macklemore Shares Pro-Palestine Protest Song “Hind’s Hall”
It’s easy to make jokes about Macklemore, the white rapper from Seattle who blew up and scored a couple of #1 hits a decade ago. But whatever you think of his hits — or even his politics — Macklemore has shown himself to be the type of artist who can make actual political statements. As an independent artist, he’s free of the network of major-label honchos and managers that seems to be actively discouraging famous artists from saying anything about the slaughter currently happening in Palestine, and he’s just shared a new protest song called “Hind’s Hall,” delivered in solidarity with the people of Palestine and with the protesters who are trying to get American colleges to divest from Israel.
Last week, pro-Palestine protesters at Columbia University took over Hamilton Hall, the college building famously occupied during the Vietnam War protests of 1968, and renamed it Hind’s Hall in honor of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed alongside her family in Gaza in January. Before her death, Rajab, who was barely conscious, sent out cell phone footage begging someone to save her. She was shot to death, and the medics who went in and tried to help her were also killed. Last week’s Hind’s Hall occupation ended when NYPD went into the building in riot gear, arresting dozens of protesters. Macklemore, as you might expect, is not happy about any of this.
Last fall, Macklemore spoke at a pro-Palestinian protest in Washington and became one of the first mainstream celebrities to refer to what’s happening in Gaza as a genocide. Yesterday, he shared a video for his new song “Hind’s Hall” on Instagram, writing, “Once it’s up on streaming all proceeds to UNRWA.” On the song, a passionate Macklemore rips into the college protesters calling police in to arrest protesters, the cops doing the arresting, pro-Israel lobbyists like AIPAC and CUFI, the effort to ban TikTok, and the way that the protests are being framed as antisemitic when many of the protesters are Jewish.
Macklemore also criticizes his music-business peers for staying silent on the issue: “What happened to the artists? What do you got to say?/ If I was on a label, you could drop me today/ I’d be fine with it ’cause the heart fed my page/ I want a ceasefire, fuck a response from Drake.” In the line that’ll probably be quoted the most, he also pledges not to vote for Joe Biden: “Where does genocide land in your definition, huh?/ Destroyin’ every college in Gaza and every mosque/ Pushin’ everyone into Rafah and droppin’ bombs/ The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all/ And fuck no, I’m not voting for you in the fall.” On Twitter, Tom Morello says that it’s “the most Rage Against The Machine song since Rage Against The Machine.” Check it out below.
