Macklemore releases Fairouz-sampled 'Hind's Hall' song, bashes Biden
3 Min Read
With the release, the artist pledges to donate all proceeds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) once the song goes live on streaming platforms.
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US rapper Macklemore, center, attends a demonstration in support of Palestinians calling for a ceasefire in Gaza on March 10, 2024, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP)
American rapper Macklemore just released a new song called "Hind's Hall" as a tribute to the Gaza campus encampments and protests, and named it after Hind's Hall in Columbia University, which had been called Hamilton Hall but was renamed by the protesters after the martyred six-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed by the IOF in Gaza.
With the release, he pledged to donate all proceeds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) once the song goes live on streaming platforms.
His opening lyrics say; “The people they won’t leave/ What is threatening about divesting and wanting peace?/ The problem isn’t the protest, it’s what they’re protesting/ It goes against what our country is funding,” over a montage of law-enforcement officials arresting students on campuses, later saying, "Block the barricade until Palestine is free."
Read next: Susan Sarandon dropped by talent agency for being pro-Palestine
HIND’S HALL. Once it’s up on streaming all proceeds to UNRWA. pic.twitter.com/QqZEKmzwZI
— Macklemore (@macklemore) May 6, 2024
He continues, “Who gets the rights to defend and who gets the right of resistance/ Has always been about dollars and the color of your pigment/ But white supremacy is finally on blast, screaming ‘Free Palestine’ till they’re home at last.
“We see the lies in them, claiming it’s anti-Semitic to be anti-Zionist/ I’ve seen Jewish brothers and sisters out there and riding/ In solidarity and screaming ‘Free Palestine’ with ’em/ Organizing, unlearning and finally cutting ties with a state/ That’s got to rely on an apartheid system to uphold an occupying violent history been repeating for the last 75/ The Nakba never ended, the colonizer lied.”
Regarding the majority of his peers being silent on the matter, he adds, "The music industry’s quiet, complicit in their platform of silence."
Jab at Biden's presidential run
He additionally declared in one of the verses that he won't be voting for US President and presidential frontrunner Joe Biden in the 2024 general election because he supported "Israel’s" war on Gaza.
Macklemore has been one of the most vocal critics of the war on Gaza and perhaps the most vocal one on the protests for Palestine.
#US artist Macklemore was captured waving a #Palestinian keffiyeh in solidarity with #Palestine during a concert in #Arizona while he was surfing the crowd.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) February 28, 2024
In an Instagram post, the artist posted the video and thanked the fan who gave him the keffiyeh.#GazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/M9WoabFjMp
Back in December, he performed a poem about Gaza and the suffering of the Palestinian people as he condemned the US' role in funding the Israeli genocide.
View this post on Instagram
For context, a group of protesters protested at Hamilton Hall at Columbia University and renamed it "Hind's Hall", according to CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a coalition of pro-Palestinian student organizations.
"Protesters have voiced their intention to remain at Hind’s Hall until Columbia concedes to CUAD’s three demands: divestment, financial transparency, and amnesty," the group underlined at the time.
