Macklemore has been accused of cultural appropriation before, but that’s not stopping him from dissing others – say, Iggy Azalea and Miley Cyrus – for doing it in his new song.
The “Thrift Shop” rapper just dropped his latest single with Ryan Lewis called “White Privilege II”—a follow-up to his 2005 track “White Privilege.” In it, he questions how artists like Miley and Iggy can “heist” black music yet not stand with black people when it comes to race issues.
He raps, “You’ve exploited and stolen the music, the moment/ The magic, the passion, the fashion, you toy with/ The culture was never yours to make better/ You’re Miley, you’re Elvis, you’re Iggy Azalea/ You’ve heisted the magic / You’ve taken the drums and the accent you rap in/ Your brand of hip hop is so fascist and backwards that Grandmaster Flash is gonna slap you, you bastard.”
Well, Iggy isn’t too happy about it.
https://twitter.com/IGGYAZALEA/status/690451451412365317
Another line reads, “We wanna dress like, walk like, talk like, dance like yet we just stand by. We take all we want from black culture, but will we show up for black lives?”
Listen to the full track below.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_rl4ZGdy34&w=640&h=360]
There will definitely be people who will argue that Macklemore is just another white artist trying to cause controversy, but hey, the song sparks a conversation about race that needs to be had.
