Macklemore has released a new song, praising pro-Palestinian college protesters and calling out President Biden amid the ongoing war in Gaza.
The single is titled “Hind’s Hall” after the name given to Hamilton Hall by Columbia University students who occupied the building in protest. Hind was a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed while fleeing heavy fighting in Gaza City with her family. She had pleaded for help with first responders after her family died but Hind herself died while waiting for help.
In the track, Macklemore says the problem “isn’t the protests, it’s what they’re protesting.” He voices his support for the protesters, urging them to “block the barricade until Palestine is free.”
“If students in tents posted on the lawn occupyin’ the quad is really against the law and a reason to call in the police and their squad, where does genocide land in your definition, huh?,” he questions.
Besides rapping about the college protests, the artist calls out those who have claimed that it’s antisemitic to be anti-Zionist, pointing out that he’s seen “Jewish brothers and sisters out there and ridin’ in solidarity” with Palestine.
Macklemore also addresses President Joe Biden directly: “The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all. And fuck no, I’m not votin’ for you in the fall. Undecided. You can’t twist the truth, the people out here united.”
The track comes seven months after Macklemore vowed to use his platform against genocide following Hamas’ October attacks on Israel, which sparked the current Gaza conflict.
At the time, he wrote that Hamas’ actions were “horrific in every way imaginable” and his heart “deeply hurts for the Israelis that lost loved ones to such an abomination.” He then noted that “killing innocent humans in retaliation as a collective punishment is not the answer.”
Macklemore expressed that he is “by no means” an expert on the subject but wanted to use his platform to call for a ceasefire after the murders of innocent Palestinian citizens. “There’s 75 years of Palestinian occupation and deeply rooted pain on both sides, stemming back far before I was born,” he wrote. “But there is no side to take when it comes to our collective human spirit. I don’t have to be an expert to inherently know this. We all have a platform to stand for what is right and just. Even if it’s a one-on-one conversation with someone.”