Rapper Macklemore is a vocal supporter of Palestine and Gaza residents. During a recent concert at MetLife Stadium, he yelled “Free Palestine!” onstage, projected images of devastation in the area, and performed protest song “Hind’s Hall.”
Now, it seems that American venues are not willing to play ball with the Seattle artist, and he has been dropped from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour.
“After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates,” according to Messina Touring Group, the promoter of Loop Tour. This news follows backlash from organizations like StopAntisemitism and others, such as pop star Pink.
So Ed Sheeran is a piece of shit, eh?
“American Venues”
Not sure who’s calling the shots here
EDIT:
The rapper alleges that Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft gave Sheeran an ultimatum.
Nothing says “good guy” like compromising your principles for money, right? tf is your argument here?
Macklemore was quite clear in his post: He blames Robert Kraft and not Ed
If Robert Kraft and the other stadium owners break tour contracts over a “we don’t like your opener” thing after they already signed, it’ll be huge fees and possibly a lawsuit. Ed Sheeran had leverage here and he didn’t use it.
His record label had the leverage and chose not to use it. There’s very little say the artists themselves actually have in these kinds of things.
This isn’t some starving artist we’re talking about here. This guy already has more money than you’ll make in your entire life working an honest job.
Does that give him any more agency in what transpires between his record label and the venues where he’s booked?
Yes it does. His fan base is what shows up and pays money in the first place.
He already has a name, time to cut loose?
All them big name artists could put their money where their mouth isn’t and build a venue, i’m sure it wouldn’t make Bono any poorer.This is, actually not a bad idea. Someone send this to someone like Jack White. Get together a bunch of top musicians to actually fund the creation of a network of publicly owned venues. They can share resources and even pay artists real wages for performances. Call it a public option. Just needs the seed money
You realize their record labels hold all their IP, don’t you? So they cut loose and go indie and build a venue. What happens when their old label tells them they can’t play any of their music?
Didn’t Taylor Swift have similar issues?
I’m guessing bad publicity would be a deterrent for those labels. I guess poor ol’ Ed would have to create new stuff too.
It’s not like Macklemore has been quiet about his stance on Palestine. If it were a problem with Ed Sheeran, he probably wouldn’t have been on the tour in the first place.
Yeah but Sheeran is willing to bend the knee to keep the tour going. A real one would apologize to fans and let it be known it’s the venue owners cancelling shows and why.
It’s not like he’s some Indy act who won’t get more shows.
Ed Sheeran would never play the United States again if he pissed off Robert Kraft and the stadium owners (and LiveNation along with them).
Glad the US isn’t the world (unless you’re murican).
Sometimes it’s about more than money. There’s plenty of non stadium venues he could still tour at.
Ed is a brand, not a talent.
Watch. If he had refused to go on without Macklemore, these guys would’ve said “oh the rich baby didn’t want to go on because Macklemore said Palestine” or some shit.
Blame the rich fucks for their crimes; don’t invent new catch-22s to hang on them.
If “these guys” you’re talking about are Zionists, then I don’t think he should care what kind of vitriol they try to brew up for him. In fact, pissing them off is often the correct stance.
…and then Sheeran chose wrong.
So a piece of shit
zionists are calling the shots in “american venues”
According to Macklemore, Sheeran was told by venues to cut him, or cancel the whole tour. Sheeran tries to remain non-political as part of his brand. But it really feels like we’re up against the sad point where, if just saying “don’t genocide people” makes you “political”, then refusing to be political makes you a piece of shit.
I think a lot of artists are still riding this line between staying safe and potentially nuking their entire career. I won’t act like that’s an easy decision for anyone to make, but obviously looking from the outside it’s easy to see what the right decision is.
Time will tell. There’s still time for Ed to walk out on stage at his biggest show of the tour, throw a fist in the air, and say Free Palestine. I’ve had zero thoughts about him up until this point, but that would at least give me one shred of respect for him.
There’s still time for Ed to walk out on stage at his biggest show of the tour, throw a fist in the air, and say Free Palestine.
Honestly, this would flip the tables on the venues (ahem, LiveNation)…they’re ok throwing their weight around to get Macklemore dropped from tours, but Ed Sheeran is making them tens of millions of dollars…they would probably shut the fuck up if he did this.
Adam Sandler: He’s not going to though
Chris Farley: No, but you can imagine what it would be like if he did.Sheeran tries to remain non-political as part of his brand.
Yeah that’s bullshit. And there’s no such thing as being “neutral”, you’re just choosing the side of the oppressor.
That was my thought exactly!
I know precious little about him, but he sounds like a real dick.
It seems like it’s the venues that won’t let Mackelmore play.
“After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates,”
From the tour promoters.
and Sheeran should refuse to work with those stakeholders
He might be contractually obligated to with significant penalties if he drops. Without knowing the contract it’s hard to tell. He might not even be able to get out of it by doing what Mackelmore did.
But it doesn’t look like he’s made a statement on it yet.
Ah yes, the most important part of music: stakeholders.
The articles made it seem like the venues forced Sheeran to drop macklemore. Sheeran may not have had a say.
He could tell the venues if they wanted to cancel his opening acts, they could cancel his show, too. That would require someone to have principles, though. 🤷♂️
he can play somewhere else
I realize that the state of touring venues is pretty fucked up, but someone with his sway is the only kind of person who can say “you know what, no, fuck you guys”
He sounds famous. I think he has some say. Of course so do venues, but I’d expect Ed Sheeran to have no problem finding other venues.
My conclusion from this is that Ed Sheeran supports genocide and that Macklemore is cooler than I thought.
a piece of shit for ditching a racist?
oh you’re ok with the racist i get it
TIL Macklemore is based
He always has been. Naturally, his one goofy song about thrifting is the one that went viral.
Eh Same Love also blew up from that album which, while woke, is also pretty corny. The album also famously won the Grammy over Kendrick Lamar so I’d say his other songs got their fair share of fame.
The Grammys being trash is nothing new and also not really Macklemore’s fault
On the other hand, I’ve got no argument at all that a lot of his music is corny af, but even when he was at his most cringe he was still trying to be a good dude at least
For sure, I was just mentioning the Grammy thing in terms of popularity. And yeah it does seem like he puts his money where his mouth is on social issues.
WHEN I WAS IN THE THIRD GRADE, I THOUGHT I WAS GAY
Even the goofy thrifting song is based as fuck. It’s a rejection of fast fashion and manufactured style in favour of joyous self-expression on a working class budget.
I know it’s just another big hit one but man I love how he just starts and doesn’t stop in “Can’t Hold Us.”
That was the song of the summer the year it came out. Went pretty hard can’t lie.
His one goofy song about thrifting was EXTREMELY well made to be fair. Funny lyrics, funny video, very distinctive beat. Having Wanz do the hook was a great choice, his voice is like a change in gears.
Where was the antisemitic part?
Gonna have to change his stage name to Macklemost
And get sued by Mattermost.
I like some of his songs about Palestine, but this guy put out songs specifically targeting Biden/Harris saying he won’t vote for them.
This guy helped Trump win.
Edit: from Hinds Hall: “The blood is on your hands Biden, we can see it all. And fuck no, I’m not voting for you in the fall.”
wow, he is a good guy after all and not just some blue maga freak, good for him.
Your right, it’s good Trump won. Things are going so well.
Edit: Both sides are the same, right everyone?
It’s time you people stop relying on the excuse that any Biden criticism is the same as equating both sides. It’s kinda pathetic and the same type of shit that will make people less likely to vote for the Democrats as it only serves as a way to suppress criticism.
do you know that tweet where that one guy is like, “i like waffles” and another guy replies saying “so you hate pancakes?”
i hope thats enough to say but the liberal mind is incomprehensible to me so idk.
He is, but also a really corny dude to the point where he gives right wing pundits someone to point and laugh at. I know he is genuine and wants to put eyeballs on issues, however he sometimes came off performative about it which turns people off unfortunately.
Nah, fuck that. What you’re calling corny is just sincerity. Leave that irony poisoned “caring about things is cringe” bullshit to the right wing chuds.
As I said, it’s unfortunate people take someone’s sincerity the wrong way… I’m glad he is doing what he is doing 100%.
Stokeholders?
The stakeholder has a name.
Macklemore has been dropped from Ed Sheeran’s tour after he says New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft organized a boycott among stadium owners over the rapper’s remarks in support of Palestinians.
Awful nice of the corporate media outlet to hide the name of one side while blasting the other.
I’m surprised Bobby Kraft wasn’t too busy getting a rub ‘n tug from a massage joint
I don’t know how they could plead not guilty when they have video footage of him getting tugged and blown on two separate occasions, they recorded his car and plate and did a ruse traffic stop on him to get him to provide his ID to an officer in the car
We live in a oligarchy and he’s a billionaire. Also the population has the working memory of a gnat and have no concept of boycotting anything. Especially if it could cause the slightest inconvenience.
The cops were locked in 100% that it was trafficking until the billionaire was caught in the web then it was all misunderstandings and mistakes. And no, it’s not conspiracy that the ladies all got enough money to not talk. A fucking billionaire doesn’t go to jail because our society would rather lick their feet.
He was expecting to have his shit nepo child running the city of Boston and building him a stadium. Sine he obviously lost kraft needs to spend his free time doing something since his best buddy epstine isn’t around to keep him busy with unfettered access to poor people’s kids.
Fuck Robert Kraft and his cock-puppet, Ed Sheeran.
Ed Sheeran here had a chance to be a hero to everyone who believes in humanity and human rights. He could have cancelled the tour for all the venues being explicitly pro-genocide and moved the concerts to other venues in the area. He would have made less money, yes. It would cost him a few fans, but he would’ve gained so many mlre. Instead he caved like a building built out of cotton candy in a short rain shower. And now I’ve sanitized my playlists from p!NK and Ed Sheeran music, these two have shown themselves to have no values. P!NK being the worst by far by actively picking the side of the oppressor. I’m done with her. Fuck Israel. Free Palestine one hundred times!
Dude really showed his true colors there. Doesn’t he have enough money already ? I already disliked his music but now I actually dislike him as a person.
Fuck Sheeran. Rat-faced little bitch
Fuck ed sheeran
But first the Kraft group, it’s easy to shift the anger to Ed, but you can’t force anyone to pick a side when they don’t want to get involved, He was planning his tour with cool musicians, hoping to maximize his target audience.
It shouldn’t be the case, but taking a stand in the US now makes you lose half of your pie, He invited Maclemore and was able to perform in a couple of show and now people talking about this might increase the numbers of people talking about Palestine.
The Kraft group was the one requesting for Maclemore to be excluded from the tour, and they should be answering those ‘Fuck you’
Yeah, but he didn’t answer “Fuck you” did he? He replied “Yes Sir, right away Sir.” He was “just following orders”.
Where have I heard that before.
Absolutely and He would have to face the consequences of that choice, but for each Fuck you Robert Kraft, they are like 200 Fuck you Ed Sheeran.
I’m not saying Ed should get a free pass, but people should be boycotting the Kraft Group first
Fair
Kraft should be forced to sell the team and deported to Israel. He can buy a soccer team there and the idf can jerk him off like he likes while wearing their victims dresses like they like to do.
There are very few instances where “white boy with guitar” has been of any interest to me.
Ed Sheeran is not one of them. In my formative years I enjoyed dashboard confessional. And to this day I still like that one guy who made that song called ocean. You know the guy with the 12 string guitar that plays on like some kind of California boardwalk I don’t know I can’t remember the name.
NVM I found it. https://youtu.be/jdYJf_ybyVo
What a spineless, snivelling Zionist bootlicker Ed Sheeran turned out to be.
TBH they’re both good arguments for atheism. Shit is absolutely stupid.
Ed Sheeran could have done the better thing and used his platform for good hadn’t he been a spineless coward.
He supported a band of Ukrainian soldiers in a similar situation, but when it comes to someone saying “Free Palestine” he just nopes the fuck out.
Zionists line his pockets.
Thank GOD these Venues are going after ANTI SEMETISM by going after artists who
Have songs LITERALLY PRAISING HITLER!say Bombing Children is WRONG!Yeah, the fact that one of the venues refusing Macklemore just let Kanye West play two shows is straight-up hypocrisy.
Only one of those guys has made public statements praising Hitler. (As far as I know, at least.)
It’s not hypocrisy, they are consistent in their horrible values and ideology.
At the moment macklemore only has a single performance lined up. But maybe we should put our money where our outrage is and keep an eye on https://macklemore.com/shows/
Kudos to Macklemore, and for shame to Sheeran
Talk about being on the wrong side of history, Ed and Pink.
Well damn. I always loved Pink.
Me too. So weird. From the article:
Pink faced backlash after reposting a statement from an advocacy group calling for an apology from Macklemore for advocating for Palestinians during his opening act for Ed Sheeran in New Jersey.
Pink reposted the message from the group StopAntisemitism on her Instagram stories. The message started with the word “Awful,” suggesting that Jewish fans had purchased their tickets to see Sheeran but instead experienced what it referred to as anti-Israel propaganda. According to the group, the Seattle rapper had accused Israel of falsely committing a genocide, and concertgoers were owed an apology and a refund. Pink did not comment and has not yet given a reason for posting the message.
wtf is that comment section
absolutely awful
I’m eagerly awaiting the free speech defenders of the right to take up this cause!
“Free Speech” was only ever about screaming the N-word in the middle of your State Uni quad, while wearing your Red Cap and waving an American Flag.
You won’t find them here on Lemmy lol
That’s why I like this place so much. We’re all crazy and fight with each other all the time, but unlike other platforms like YouTube and Reddit, at least here we can all agree that human beings deserve basic rights! (for the most part lol)
Money is classified as free speech.
Robert Kraft is using his free speech to bribe Ed into censoring his friend and supporting artist.
Sorry Ed, but there’s no such thing as being “apolitical” anymore. Willingness to ignore the current reality is a political statement in and of itself, and a terrible one at that. If you aren’t willing to seize this moment and stand up for what is right, you can go the fuck away.
I get that it wasn’t his decision whether or not Macklemore got booted, but it was his choice not to go down with the anti-genocide ship, and he did so because he doesn’t want to lose the pro-genocide cash.
Apolitical is just a conservative who doesn’t have the balls to say they’re a conservative.
Being apolitical in a democracy is in itself a paradox at best and a clear sign of hipocrasy at worst.
A society that requires citizen participation in governance and one chooses to be ignorant? Absurd.
