article
Macklemore says he will donate $1 million of his net earnings from Ed Sheeran's "LOOP Tour" to six organizations supporting the Palestinian-people
He’s not but krafts response was basically him pretending like he cares about Palestine except for the evil HAMAS so it will make him look the hypocrite
"I agree with Macklemore. Too many lives have been lost and there has been too much suffering, but only sharing selective information and ignoring the actions of Hamas is not honest and only advances more divisiveness and hate. Over many decades, I have directed resources to Palestine and created athletic and entrepreneurial opportunities for Palestinians who I admire and respect. Standing with the Palestinian people and standing against Hamas, antisemitism and hate should not be mutually exclusive."
I am skeptical of this. Kraft seems to be creating room for dissent but the room is so small you can't fit anything but a speck of dust in it.
Over many decades, I have directed resources to Palestine and created athletic and entrepreneurial opportunities for Palestinians who I admire and respect.
I guarantee this means nothing more than he's had a Palestinian or two on his team before and is pretending that counts.
Were the resources bombs? Were the athletic and entrepreneurial opportunities special olympics athletes missing limbs and the industries supporting them?
This was a reasonable position 2.5 years ago when the stated goal was to eliminate hamas. That still hasn't happened. So it's clearly never really been about eliminating hamas.
If it was about eliminating Hamas they wouldn't have been funding them and ignoring intelligence about an impending attack. Hamas was a tool for them to justify a genocide.
I have always believed that they funded and trained the October 7 attackers.
When asked how the attackers learned how to use the parasailers, the response was "they practiced out in the desert where no one could see them."
But Gaza is 8 miles wide at its widest and surveilled by cameras that can see all the way across every foot of it.
There is nowhere dozens of attackers could learn to use the parasailers and coordinate an attack with them.
There is no place where they would not have been seen from miles away.
And that is before you ask how they got the components to make a single one of these, when even basic goods like sugar, soap, and electronic devices are heavily restricted or forbidden and every item that enters the country is inspected and passed through or sent away at the border by Israeli guards.
I have directed resources to Palestine and created athletic and entrepreneurial opportunities for Palestinians who I admire and respect.
This is very much just his "I'm not racist, I have black friends," IMO. He is talking about specific individuals, and I bet he tells them "you're one of the good ones."
I have directed resources to Palestine and created athletic and entrepreneurial opportunities for Palestinians who I admire and respect.
LOL. This doesn't mean shit.
directed resources to Palestine can just mean he used employees to research stuff there. and created opportunities means he could have told a Palestinian where to get a job.
This doesn't mean a fucking thing that he donated money to Palestine lol.
"I agree with Macklemore. Too many lives have been lost and there has been too much suffering, but only sharing selective information and ignoring the actions of Hamas is not honest and only advances more divisiveness and hate."
I beg anyone who believes this PR spin to listen to Macklemore's actual speech. Hamas's actions do not justify the murder of tens and thousands of people.
Kraft will never do anything decent, but please don’t suggest that it’s because of his Orthodox roots. There are definitely Orthodox Jews standing up for the people of Gaza right now — e.g., Rabbi Yosef Blau has been very vocal about the Israeli government’s culpability for deaths in Gaza. Kraft’s religious background isn’t the reason he’s a schmuck.
I heard his previous song Hind's Hall and I enjoyed it, tried listening to some of his newer stuff and it was a lot better than thrift shop. May not be for everyone but it's at least some extra plays/views on his songs
He has always spoken out about the things that matter. I know his music isn’t for everyone but I have been a fan since he was playing small shows in Seattle and while a lot of his music is goofy he also has some pretty serious tracks talking about same sex marriage and racial inequality that I think are worth listening to. Also, some of his stuff about his time as a drug user and about his relapse are good tracks as well. He doesn’t glorify drugs, he talks about watching it kill his friends and his future and how he would go to a meeting after his relapse and have people tell him his music helped them get sober while he’s back to 3 days clean and doesn’t know whether it would be helpful or harmful to tell them the truth.
He was my cousins friend before my cousin passed and i got to know him well before he broke out and got big with the Heist. He just genuinely cares about people, and he’s so inclusive. He’s probably one of the most genuine people i’ve ever got to know. I’m really proud of him, because i know he’s just going to keep giving back with all this new attention, it’s just who he is.
My cousin was really in the seattle musician scene and knew quite a lot around that time. Not many put up with his little cousin hanging around and Ben was more than patient with me despite being quite younger. He’s good people, very true to himself.
I feel like it’s easier for me to accept this if I don’t like the artist’s music but am fine with the person. Vice versa… like with Kanye… that’s something else haha
This is how you do it. Re-center on the real, primary issue, and don’t make it about yourself. He seems to be genuinely sincere about this, and he’s leading by example.
Exactly. I think that there’s a thing in pop music that as sincerity increases, coolness decreases, leading to corniness. But I’d argue that enthusiasm makes up for it, and he’s still got that.
Honestly we could do with a lot more corny and a lot less cool sometimes. Coolness and apathy tend to go hand in hand, and we don't live in a time for apathy.
Putting aside the dickheads that tried to co-opt the scene (eg. Skinhead movement), real punks have always been caring - we're just being loud about it.
Yup. Every single mosh pit I've ever been in has big dudes thrashing about, but if they hit someone off their feet or someone not in the pit, they are right there helping them up or apologizing.
We rap about what we see, meaning reality
From people busting caps and like Mandela being free
Not every MC be with the negativity
We have a slew of rappers pushing positivity
Hip-hop will never die yo, it's all about the rap
So Mayor Barry smoking crack, let's preach about that.
I honestly think we're past the point where we have to preface talking about Macklemore with "Dude may be cringe, but..."
That's giving wayyy too much weight to "cringe" and way too little to his actions, values, and how he's using his platform.
Let's just cut right to it: he's a role model, a rare musician trying to do something deeply meaningful beyond the music.
It feels defensive and self-conscious, like "Macklemore may have donated his entire $1 million payout, but god I'd be so humiliated if you assumed I thought his music was cool!"
I think talking about his corny songs about his girlfriend shitting with the door open and how happy that makes him IS kind of the point.
Like that song is terrible in every way and shouldn't have been made, those songs could have stayed inside thoughts.
But he's the type of dude to talk about and sing about stuff that matters to him, be it Palestine or his girlfriends cute diarrhea. That he will sing a 14 minute song about how he is sort of embarrassed to be a white rapper (and white in general) but is just doing what he loves is part of what gives his real political stances so much weight.
It's only one line in "spoon" but its memorable as fuck, the whole song sounds like a couples in joke that someone sneakily recorded against their will
I think we have to move past this stupid era of sincerity being cringe and corny. I miss people being real and genuine, unafraid of apathetic losers making fun of them.
Starting to think that Pink kicking off, has actually made a good impact and created a good honest discussion about the denial of genocide. Hopefully this will make a good and lasting impact for those suffering from this genocide. Denying it at this point, or being silent is just ridiculous.
We get taken by the scale of the whole deal: first him being fired, then all the musicians leaving the tour, then all the celebrities dunking on Sheeran, but he does insist tirelessly on re-centering the discussion on the people of Gaza. I admire that.
One of the things I’ve loved about him for a long time. He has always embraced who he is and seemingly made sure that public always gets the real him. And his convictions have always seemed rock solid.
I haven't even thought of Macklemore in like a decade but I've been impressed with how he's handled himself with this. Seems like at every turn he's handled himself with class while at the same time leveraged the situation at each step to bring more attention and support to Palestine. First it was the comments at the show, then the statement in which he laid out very clear what was happening in Palestine while subtly turning up the pressure on Sheeran, now this in which he's donating a shit ton of money and publicly calling for Kraft to do the same. Feels like a bit of a masterclass in PR.
I feel like Macklemore’s words and actions resonate so much with the rest of us because they just FEEL like the right thing to do. It’s what most of would do if we had the resources and weren’t struggling to survive on the day-to-day.
We’re so used to the famous and wealthy being completely out of touch with common humanity it makes the disparity glaring and notable.
It’s akin to the way Mackenzie Scott’s philanthropy stands out because the vast majority of the Epstein-class are garbage humans.
Their examples show us how easy it COULD be for those with power to do good, and yet they just don’t.
Yea i remeber growing up all my friends bashed on him for singing about gay rights but I was like who the fuck cares? Shits catchy and you love who you love. Dipshits rule the world right now.
Some of these sites you can donate as little as a $1 I know were all struggling right now!
But i figure I have hundreds of dollars in weed crumbs in my house I can donate a little in hopes it makes someone’s day a tad bit easier
I was gonna get a pedi today.
I hope one day I’m in a position that I can give more.
I really do.
Anything helps op.
I donate to this local food bank by my home and I only donate $10 a month and it feels small but I know a couple hundred others do the same so together we’re making a small dent: 💚
Yeah of course, but its just flinging some shit around. "I dare you to be a good person (you wont), it would be easier for you than me" is just a baller thing to say to a billionaire.
It’s a great move by Macklemore because he gets to double down on embarrassing Kraft
If Kraft doesn’t match (likely), he looks like an even bigger piece of shit.
If Kraft does match, everyone knows how easy that is for him to do and it doesn’t even begin to move the needle. But it does open the conversation for him to do more than donate money for a PR move, and when he ultimately fails to do anything else, we’re back to the first scenario again.
Not only will Kraft get fairly minimal credit for such a donation due to his much vaster wealth, it will actually be more of a PR win for Macklemore for basically causing that second million to be donated. I'm surprised how easily I believe this goofy rapper is so genuinely doing things for that right reason, but that doesn't mean he isn't also playing the PR angle amazingly.
Not likely imo. A mil ain’t much but it ain’t nothing and I doubt Israel would look kindly upon the donation, and retaining favour with Israel is what caused him to force Macklemore off in the first place
Right, so he is using Krafts words of "our goal is the same – peace for all people, an end to suffering, and an end to all hate" and saying - put your money where your mouth is? Do I have that right or am I still not understanding the angle
100%. The dude got busted for prostitution in a sex trafficking investigation and used Epstein’s Palm Beach lawyer (Jack Goldberger) for his legal defense on Epstein’s recommendation. I don’t know how this gets glossed over.
It's nice to finally see the mob needle swinging back to the real monster here, Robert Kraft. Ed is a milquetoast musician that is probably really wishing he made a different choice, but at the end of the day Kraft is the man behind the curtains making this shitshow unfold.
Don't let Billionaires control the narrative. They're the real cancer on this earth.
It's almost guaranteed that if him and Ed are friends, that he was paid in full without a second thought. 1 million in the end is nothing for how much the tour would generate.
These days tours are basically a standalone (temporary) business.
So that is almost certainly his guaranteed flat fee. Back in the day artists on tour took a decent amount of risk. They would only make money if the tour sold well. But with the new model, a company is formed that handles basically everything for the tour. The artists are ‘hired’ by the tour company for a guaranteed rate (with built in bonuses/incentives/etc based on certain factors) but that way the artists themselves are somewhat ‘protected’ from a tour that underperforms.
IIRC The Rolling Stones were one of the acts that changed this whole arrangement. Their accountant is often seen as the ‘inventor’ of the modern tour business model.
Could be a contractual amount that was agreed upon prior. I imagine, since the tour managers were the ones who removed him, that they had to pay Macklemore anyway, as it was on their terms. It’s hard to say, though.
I never stopped listening after Thrift Shop popped off. "This Unruly Mess I've Made" was one of the albums that got me through my deployment. Macklemore has always been a real one.
Part of the reason I didn't like him way back when was because I thought he was pandering. Turns out he's just that dude. Music that preaches about equality is great if you believe the person, but there's so many Taylor Swift and Black Eyed Peas types out there that are just trying to create capital out of a message.
Yeah this is a pretty key moment for his platform, on top of just being a genuinely good thing to do, "putting your money where your mouth is" tends to validate the cause you are championing. People are more likely to take it seriously when other people have obvious stakes in it.
And there will be no shortage of people saying he was only virtue signalling when he spoke up, and while doing this will definitely not silence those voices, putting a million dollars up does tend to make them bite less.
All the common disclaimers about how wealth is poison and charity is a con against the moral apply, but the reality is the world really sucks sometimes, and good theory does not feed anyone on its own.
I think by definition the moment you donate significant money, even if you are wealthy, it can't be signalling. That is active participation.
I don't doubt that many cynical rich people donate purely for the PR gains it gives them, but all that means to me is that the public has enough pull to force them to do something halfway useful with some snall portion of their money.
I am not making the claim that Macklemore is that kind of cynical, by the by, I am speaking generally as to why I do not feel a strong need to interrogate it. I just want people to be healthy and happy, and while systemic change is necessary for that to be permanent, in the meantime people are starving and dying.
Have you noticed the sharp uptick in sneering comments talking about how nobody will even notice this after a week? Common tone, common message, always from accounts with hidden histories.
You know…. why do people always have to start with “while I’m not a fan…” or “while I don’t like…” before complimenting or praising someone? Just say “I want to shake this dudes hand for all he’s doing”
I just don’t think it’s relevant to point out you’re not a fan when the conversation isn’t about being fan
Because it shows the commenter isn’t biased by being a fan. Many fans will blindly support an artist in anything they do, which makes the fan’s support less credible.
The thing is I get that but in this case, his activism or what he’s doing has nothing to do with his music. If a random person did this, you don’t need to be like “idk this guy or like him but what he did is good”, you could just commend him and leave as is
His discography as a whole is nothing to write home about but he still has some genuine bangers which is more than I can say for a lot of musicians who got big
Title is incorrect in that it doesn't say the whole of the truth but it's close. He is donating his ENTIRE net earnings from the tour. Which amounts to $1 million. It's a dramatically different statement. He's not donating some of his earnings, he is donating ALL of his net earnings from this tour.
Worth noting that he has (per quick google) a net worth of ~$25m, so this is 3-4% of his total net worth: a pretty substantial amount even to him.
If you were a more normal person with a net worth of, say, $200k (half the retirement-age median) this would be like you donating $8k. Which is sure more than I've ever given out in one go.
Macklemore is in a great position to put together a fundraising tour and sell a bajillion tickets and every artist who wants to be on the right side of history will be trying to get in on it. Bet.
7.0k
u/wilsont18 Sep 16 '26
Calling out Robert Kraft to match the donation is a great move.