Macklemore

An accursed sound.

The sound of longboard wheels crackling and rolling along potholed pavement. Scattered dairy queen blizzards on a June evening, the ennui of fading summer lost to lack of perception as time moves in its unending cycle. string symphonies utilized in ways I don’t actually want to comprehend.

BLESS YOUR FUCKING SOULS. 

I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT STAND THAT FUCKING A LOT OF TUMBLR HATES MACKLEMORE. 

BECAUSE HONESTLY, HE WAS EVERYTHING THEY WERE COMPLAINING WHITE PEOPLE AREN’T AND NOW THAT THEY GOT A FUCKING ROLEMODEL THEY SUDDENLY COMPLAIN?????? BECAUSE HE’S WHITE????? 

Macklemore grew up privileged, yes, but he understands the inequality and the disturbing gap between rich and poor. He has a song called White Privilege: 

"Hiphop started off in a block that I’ve never been to To counter act a struggle that I’ve never even been through If I think I understand just because I flow too That means I’m not keeping it true, nope.”

ALSO

"But as I’m blessed with the privilege, they’re still left with the scars"

AND HAVE YOU HEARD HIS SONG CLAIMING THE CITY???

"I grew up on Capitol Hill, With two parents and two cars. They had a beautiful marriage, we even had a swing set in our yard. My mom didn’t have a job, because my dad made enough money that we could live comfortably and he could support us. Now, he commute to Tacoma, so we knew we be good. But then I realized everybody looked just like me in my neighborhood. I go to school, which was diverse. But indeed us, I got sandwiches and Capri Suns well my friends ate their free lunch. It’s crazy trying to look back, cause when I was growing up I didn’t understand the fact was there’s something called a social status. And my black friends wanted my financial bracket. And then my city’s divided, From neighborhood to neighborhood We’re polarized but we claim we’re progressive. The police shoot in the hood but never once in my residence. As a white person been shot at we’d stopped in a Lexus. And to think that we have claimed that so much has changed”

OH GOODNESS ME, HE’S SUCH AN ASSHOLE. HE’S SO PRIVILEGED GOD.

HOW ABOUT A WAKE??? 

"Don’t wanna be that white dude, million man marchin’ Fighting for our freedom that my people stole Don’t wanna make all my white fans uncomfortable But you don’t even have a fuckin’ song for radio Why you out here talkin race, tryin’ to save the fuckin’ globe Don’t get involved with the causes in mind White privilege, white guilt, at the same damn time So we just party like it’s nineteen ninety nine Celebrate the ignorance while these kids keep dying.”

And 99% of people who complain about the first lyric of “Same Love” have never actually listened beyond that. Somebody tells them “The song starts with ‘when i was in the third grade i thought that i was gay’” and they start clutching their pearls because surely the whole song is just some straight dude making lgbtqa rights all about him and how he thinks because he thought he was gay when he was eight he knows all about it. And maybe it’s not the best way to word the beginning of the song, BUT IF YOU ACTUALLY LISTEN OR READ BEYOND THAT it turns out it’s a segue into talking about ridiculous stereotypes and preconceived ideas about sexuality and questioning why someone would think it was a bad idea to be gay in the first place. And then it goes on to discuss the homophobia inherent in the music genre he’s a part of and calling his peers out on slurs and derogatory language and hypocrisy in religion, and it beautifully features Mary fucking Lambert, and goddammit I had trouble driving home when I first heard it in the car because I was fucking crying.

over many a quaint and curious greatcoat of forgotten bore—

while I nodded, puissance sapping, suddenly there came a yapping,

as of some one whitely rapping, rapping at my bargain store—

“‘tis some visitor,” i muttered, “rapping at my bargain store—

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat. WANZ | Melbourne, 2014

Photos by Shevin Dissanayake.