There’s been a lot of controversy lately surrounding the presence of white artists in hip hop and pop, #blacklivesmatter, police brutality and the stealing of black culture for profit by white artists. That being said, Macklemore has been at the forefront of the controversies. Most notably when he won a grammy for best hip hop album of the year in 2014 over Kendrick Lamar’s good kid maad city. Though he hasn’t talked about it much publicly he’s finally touched on his privileges via a new song with Ryan Lewis. This 9 minute song is incredibly interesting and open to say the least. What are your thoughts on Macklemore saying these things? Check out some of the quotable lyrics from the song below.
“You’ve exploited and stolen, the music, the moment
The magic, the passion, the fashion, you toyed with
The culture was never, yours to make better.
You’re Miley, you’re Elvis, you’re Iggy Azalea.
Fake and so plastic, you heisted the magic.
You’ve taken the drums, and the accent rapped in.
Your brand of hip-hop, is facist and backwards
That Grandmaster Flash should go slap you, you bastard.
All the money you made off the watered down
Pop bullshit version of the culture pal.”
Written by Jesse Wiles