Rapper Macklemore Leads ‘F— America’ Chant At Charity Concert To Benefit Palestinian Refugees

Rapper Macklemore led a “f— America” chant during a charity concert in Seattle created to benefit Palestinian refugees.

Macklemore started the chant onstage at the Palestine Will Live Forever Festival in support of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees. The festival took place at the Seward Park Amphitheatre in Seattle.

“Straight up, say it,” the rapper said in response to the chants from the audience. “I’m not gonna stop you. I’m not gonna stop you. Yeah, f— America.”

After he started this chant, the crowd began cheering loudly.

The rapper has been highly critical of American foreign policy as the war between Israel and Hamas intensified.

In May, he released a protest song, “Hind’s Hall,” in support of the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses. All proceeds from the song are going to be donated to UNRWA.

In the protest song, Macklemore was critical of the current administration for providing military support to Israel.

The video accompanying the song mixed his lyrics with clips of protests across American colleges, which witnessed a surge of clashes between protesters and campus police.

Macklemore has been a longtime supporter of the Palestinian people.

In November 2023, he gave an unrehearsed speech at a pro-Palestine rally in Washington, D.C.

“I don’t know enough, but I know enough that this is a genocide,” he said to the crowd.

This speech was preceded by a statement on October 19, 2023, in which he slammed Hamas’ bloody incursion against Israel and Israel’s harsh response against the Gaza Strip, calling the second incident “an unfolding genocide” and a “U.S. backed catastrophe.”

Macklemore furthered his support for Palestinian people over the weekend when he dropped the sequel to his May song “Hind’s Hall 2.”

The original song has been updated with new vocals from Gaza-bred rapper MC Abdul, Palestinian-American singer Anees, author Amer Zahr, the L.A. Palestinian Kids Choir, Tiffany Wilson and friends and the Lifted! Youth Gospel Choir. 

In the final verse, the rapper sings a couplet in which he attacks Israel’s almost year-long war in Gaza.

“Long live the resistance if there’s something to resist/ Had enough of you motherf—ers murdering little kids/P.C. for a minute, I was tryna be a bridge,” the rapper sang. 

He then targeted the V.P. with a warning about possibly losing the significant Arab-American/Muslim vote in Michigan if she maintained the administration’s support for Israel.

“But there’ll never be freedom by pleading with Zionists/ World screaming Free Palestine/ We see the manual, we know how you colonized… Hey, I don’t know if you’re listening/ But stop sending money and weapons, or you ain’t winning in Michigan/ We uncommitted, and hell no we ain’t switching positions/ Because the whole world turned Palestinian,” he then sang.

The song also includes the chant “from the river to the sea/ Palestine will be free,” a phrase which the American Jewish Committee says was a “rallying cry for terrorist groups and their sympathizers… [as well as] a common call-to-arms for pro-Palestinian activists, especially student activists on college campuses.”