- Rapper Macklemore has released a pro-Palestine protest song called "Hind's Hall."
- The song's title references the campus hall occupied by Columbia University students.
Macklemore has called for a cease-fire in Gaza and condemned continuing US aid to Israel in his new song, "Hind's Hall."
The song takes its name from the recent occupation of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, where pro-Palestine protests have been raging since mid-April.
Protesters barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall, a main campus building at Columbia, where they hung a flag declaring it Hind's Hall in tribute to Hind Rajab, a six-year-old who was found dead in February alongside two paramedics sent to save her in Gaza.
The song has gone viral on social media with 37 million views on X, 1.7 million views on YouTube, and 2.9 million likes on Instagram.
In the opening bars of his new song, Macklemore praises college students across the US who are protesting Israel's war in Gaza.
"The people, they won't leave/ What is threatenin' about divesting and wantin' peace?/ The problem isn't the protests, it's what they're protesting/ It goes against what our country is funding/ Block the barricade until Palestine is free," the song begins.
Elsewhere on the song, the 40-year-old rapper — best known for his hits "Thrift Shop" and "Can't Hold Us" — said he would not be voting for President Joe Biden come November: "The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all/ And fuck no, I'm not votin' for you in the fall."
He closes out the song by calling out the silence of his music industry peers and referencing the feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar, which has dominated the hip-hop conversation and community in recent weeks.
"Never be defeated when freedom's on the horizon/ Yet the music industry's quiet, complicit in their platform of silence/ What happened to the artist? What do you got to say?/ If I was on a label, you could drop me today/ I'd be fine with it cause the heart fed my page/ I want a cease-fire, fuck a response from Drake," he raps
With the release of "Hind's Hall," the Seattle-born rapper has become one of the first artists to explicitly call out the US government's continuing aid to Israel.
Several musicians, including Macklemore, Dua Lipa, and Drake, have signed an Artists 4Ceasefire letter addressed to Biden.
Meanwhile, Annie Lennox called for a cease-fire while performing onstage at the Grammys in February.
Macklemore wrote on Instagram that he would donate all proceeds from the song, which has received more than 1.6 million views on YouTube so far, to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
The Grammy award-winning artist is no stranger to making political statements through his music. His 2012 song "Same Love" took aim at the hip-hop industry's stance on homophobia and promoted same-sex marriage.