"Blood is on your hands, Biden": Macklemore drops pro-Palestine protest song

"Hind’s Hall" is a tribute to student protesters at Columbia University

By Nardos Haile

Staff Writer

Published May 7, 2024 2:13PM (EDT)

Rapper Macklemore performs onstage during the BEN tour at Climate Pledge Arena on December 21, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Mat Hayward/Getty Images)
Rapper Macklemore performs onstage during the BEN tour at Climate Pledge Arena on December 21, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Mat Hayward/Getty Images)

Macklemore does not back down in his new pro-Palestine protest song "Hind's Hall," joining the legion of musicians, especially rappers, who use their lyricism for progressive activism.

The Seattle rapper dropped the song Monday evening on social media in response to the ongoing war in Gaza as the death toll skyrockets and Israel escalates an invasion in Rafah. The song also uplifts protests across the country at various college campuses, including Columbia University.

At the center of the song is Hind's Hall, a new name that protesters at Columbia gave to an occupied Hamilton Hall last month. They renamed the hall in remembrance of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old killed by the Israeli military in February. 

The rapper addresses that there is nothing wrong with the student protests, "It’s what they’re protesting/It goes against what our country is funding/Block the barricade until Palestine is free.” The multi-Grammy-winning artist also called out President Joe Biden for enabling the war, “The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all/And f**k no, I’m not voting for you in the fall.”

Macklemore isn't afraid to put the music industry on blast. He even namechecks Drake and the feud with Kendrick Lamar. He raps they're "complicit in their platform of silence."

He continued, "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 ceasefire, f**k a response from Drake.”

Macklemore said that once the song is on streaming all proceeds will go to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

MORE FROM Nardos Haile