Macklemore started with the joys of thrift stores, moved to rapping about gay bashing and now he's pondering a white person's role in the struggle against racism against black people.
"White Privilege II," the latest track from Grammy winners Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, is being offered as a free download online. The download site here also links to "supporting black led organizations" and "collaborators."
Or listen to the song here via NPR.org:
"This song is the outcome of an ongoing dialogue with musicians, activists, and teachers within our community in Seattle and beyond," the message on the site says. "Their work and engagement was essential to the creative process."
The some of the lyrics from the song, which features Jamila Woods:
"Am I on the outside looking in,
Or am I on the inside looking out?
Is it my place to give my two cents
Or should I stand on the side and shut my mouth?
'No justice no peace'
Oh yeah, I'm saying that.
They chanting out BLACK LIVES MATTER
But I don't say it back.
Is it O.K. for me to say? I don't know, so I watch and stand."
"You've exploited and stolen, the music, the moment
The magic, the passion, the fashion, you toyed with
The culture was never, yours to make better.
You're Miley, you're Elvis, you're Iggy Azalea.
Fake and so plastic, you heisted the magic.
You've taken the drums, and the accent rapped in.
Your brand of hip-hop, is facist and backwards
That Grandmaster Flash should go slap you, you bastard.
All the money you made off the watered down
Pop bulls--t version of the culture pal"
"If I'm only in this for my own self interest,
Not the culture that gave me a voice to begin with
Then this isn't authentic, it is just a gimmick.
The DIY underdog, so independent.
But one thing the American dream fails to mention
Is that I was many steps ahead to begin with."
The song ends with singer and poet Jamila Woods singing these lines:
"Your silence is a luxury.
Hip-hop is not a luxury.
What I got for me, it is for me?
What we made, we made to set us free."The full Macklemore & Ryan Lewis album, This Unruly Mess I've Made, can be bought starting February 26, 2016.
