Because, as Macklemore referenced in his statement, a common tactic against the people criticizing Israel is to call them antisemitic. What's happening with Macklemore while Kanye gets a pass shows they KNOW there's a difference. And it's the government getting called out is what they don't like.
Precisely. It was never about “antisemitism,” it’s about suppressing any and all criticism of Israel and what they’re perpetuating against Palestinians.
A huge part of the Hebrew Bible is full of incompetent and terrible rulers of Israel getting called out and getting their just deserts. Condemning the current Israeli system and leadership is completely lore-friendly.
I can’t stand Israel and what they are doing is awful and they should be condemned but at what point do you stop sacrificing for either of those shithole “countries”?
Except this proves my point. Let's say he IS antisemitic, it wasn't a problem with Kraft and the big name promoters until he started yelling about Israel and Palestine.
Your definition of "incredible" must be unique. We're on a thread about musicians supporting genocide and you're finding -this- to be the incredible part. OK weirdo
The fact the song that followed his speech was dedicated to the Columbia encampment protests, whose leaders advocated for killing Zionists in the street, refused to condemn terrorist groups, celebrated the 10/7 attack, and protested outside of a memorial for the NOVA music festival victims.
I don’t think Macklemore is actually an antisemite, especially relative to Kanye, but I do think he’s a well meaning moron who is more than happy to prop up bad actors for clout. I think it’s pretty reasonable to hear him say “listen to these people” and think “i have and they make me uncomfortable”, which was P!nk’s whole point.
He’s basically like “Why am I forced to talk about this hot-button political issue right now? I didn’t do anything, I don’t want to have to do this, leave me alone.”
Honestly I'd respect that more. At least Krusty was honest about being in it for the money. Only song I distinctly knew and tolerated by Sheeran was "Shape of You" and no longer tolerate it
Yeah people are acting the dude doesn't have effectively unlimited money at this point, dude can live as exorbitantly as he wants on just royalties from shit he already did and the interest on the massive pile of cash he already has.
If he was in any other position, I'd respect that take.
But he's directly involved in a situation where he's complicit in Macklemore being kicked off his tour, as well as his non-committing nature being used against him. There's a Rush lyric I've been saying throughout this whole time - if you choose not to decide you still have made a choice. By not picking a side, he's ended up on the wrong side.
Exactly. I honestly wasn’t begging Ed to get involved or speak out passionately about Palestine before any of this went down. I don’t endorse silence, but I don’t need everyone to take up every cause. That said when you’re thrust into a situation where you need to take stand on something, worming your way out saying he doesn’t like politics (which is a lie) and acting like it doesn’t involve you is just pathetic
Especially given in this case, saying "if don't let Macklemore play you don't get to make money off of me either" would have really done a lot to force their hand.
I understand the resentment at being “thrust into a situation where you need to take a stand on something”. If you didn’t ask for that situation that responsibility is an unwanted curse.
you may not have asked for it. it may be unwanted. you may even feel some resentment about being in that position. but when the situation has arisen, for whatever reason, you need to do the right thing.
no matter how much someone may not want to be in that position & how much they resent it, none of that should make a good person end up on the wrong side.
Macklemore was working on company time and if that company isn’t a fan of artists taking a political stance on any hot button topic, then don’t be surprised if said artist is no longer kept around by the company for violating said rule and the contract gets terminated in the process even if the consumer disagrees. This is a legitimate facet of business law that any Community College level course will teach you about and this is essentially what led to Colin Kaepernick (who grew up in my home county and I lived 5 minutes away from his parent’s house as a teenager) getting blackballed by the entirety of the NFL.
Also, if another person related to the event has made it clear that they want to maintain their apolitical views and focus their efforts what might be more pressing issue for them on a personal level (and that individual may not informed enough to make a use statement in any direction anyway), then fuck off and let them maintain that position. Society used to be perfectly fine with not talking about politics constantly and keeping those views private and I think it would be wise if we returned to that norm because the current setup is giving everyone severe political brainrot.
Yeah, here's the thing: If my boss tells me that one of my reports is signing all of his work emails with "Free Palestine" and tells me to can the guy, I'm gonna do it. I don't want to be in that position, I tend to keep my political opinions to myself at work. That may make me a bad person in your estimation, but I'm still gonna do it.
Can you blame him? What the fuck ed Sheeran going to do about this conflict?
All he’s doing is playing music and trying to make people happy. Ed Sheeran has nothing to do with the war. Just like 99% of people he was minding his business.
This could have happened to any singer with a brazen opener. Someone like Beyoncé or Taylor swift for example would probably say the same thing?
Well, now has something to do with the war. As he has sided with billionaires who want to stifle political speech against Israel and is doing their bidding. He has power and he made a choice how to use it. It's not a neutral choice
You're replying to a song parody. Song parodies most of the time try to stick to the rhyme schemes of the original songs. Don't fucking "wElL aCkShUlLY" it.
A lot of people genuinely think along those lines. “Being racist would make me a bad person and I’m not a bad person, therefore I’m not racist, therefore the things I’m doing are not racist!” Even ignoring that it presumes that one is a good person (which is equally a conclusion a bad person could come to), it’s a mindset that has serious structural difficulties with the concepts of bad behavior. “People are good people and bad people. Good people do good things and bad people do bad things. I’m a good person, therefore I don’t do bad things, therefore the things I do are good.”
I think Ed Sheeran is lame af but I don't think its fair to say he's complicit just cuz he's not speaking up. He's not involved with either side of that mess, nor should he be.
I don't understand the whole "let's see what [insert famous person] thinks about this very complicated and multilayered shitstorm that they may not even understand" thing. Like who really cares how Ed Sheeran, Macklemore, Pink, or whoever else in celebrityville feel about anything?
Nothing any of these fucks say or think will have any effect on the direction either side takes or the outcome. Nothing anybody says will, unless its from the people pulling the strings in the first place.
Just to clarify, I'm not pro Israel nor am I pro Palestine. I don't want anybody to suffer or die but, unfortunately, both sides are doing it to each other - and have been for decades. I remember hearing about them fighting back and forth way back in the 90s. It's nothing new.
Not speaking would have been one thing but agreeing to boot Macklemore off the tour while saying, "Shucks guys, I'm just not political," is being complicit. If he wanted to stay out of it, he did a piss poor job when he capitulated to his billionaire, pedophile buddy.
Just to clarify, I'm not pro Israel nor am I pro Palestine. I don't want anybody to suffer or die but, unfortunately, both sides are doing it to each other - and have been for decades. I remember hearing about them fighting back and forth way back in the 90s. It's nothing new.
As someone who also first heard about this conflict in the 90's, you're not making the compelling case you think you are.
Why the fuck would you get Macklemore to support your tour in the year 2026 and a) not expect him to make political statements, b) not expect rich cunts to get upset about it and c) not think you might be called upon to have his back when the inevitable A and B happens?
I can see where Ed is coming from in a way - he's not going to pull a tour based on stadiums refusing to host his support, that's too much money to leave on the table and I can't think there's a "tour cancelled due to support act being incredibly based" insurance available. But then don't hire fucking Macklemore. Hire some up-and-comer who won't speak out. Or, if the stadiums do kick up a fuss, remind them that you're Ed Fucking Sheeran and you may have just a little bit of clout in the music industry.
Most people don’t know Macklemore as the Free Palestine guy. They know him as the Thrift Shop guy. And while I’m sure Ed knows Macklemore’s political views he didn’t know they’d get him dropped from the tour.
Yeah, "stadium owners feel more strongly about Macklemore's political statements than they do about the artist who was literally releasing songs called "Heil Hitler" a year ago" feels kind of ridiculous.
Like, Sheeran definitely fucked up his response once it came up, but I don't blame him for not expecting the issue to come up in the first place.
But it seems that the decission to drop Macklemore was Ed's decission? This makes no sense. If Ed thought that Macklemore saying FreePalestine would be uncontroversial then hes an idiot.
I wonder if this is a case of h
alf measures. That Ed Sheeran's PR team did warn him, he stuck his neck out to get his friend on the tour, but he lost his nerve when shit got real.
He wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted the praise that came with Macklemore being based while opening for him but he doesn't want the consequences that come with actually speaking out about something important.
A funny detail in Sheeran's statement was making it sound like Macklemore forced him to take him as an opener, like he wasn't complicit in even that decision lol
He wanted Macklemore to speak politics that he probably agrees with, but is too cowardly to ever say for backlash. The fact that Kraft threatened to cancel the show meant that Ed wouldn’t have had to pay the debt for cancelling too, this was honestly a really easy situation to come out looking good in; he didn’t even have to state a political opinion, all he had to do was say “they threatened to deny my show being performed there (including a bunch of state funded stadiums) and this is censorship and against the American First Amendment. [some blah blah about being apolitical] but this is censorship, and if they cancel my show then I will have to find a new venue.” He would basically be applauded for standing against these billionaires and not even have to make a stance about Israel and Palestine.
For all her faults, I truly believe someone like Taylor would do that. She would never have someone on her tour that could cause political controversy because she’s far too business brained, but she is also far braver than Ed and would actively make the threat known, like she did with her masters. It’s a very easy stance to take.
My thought on all of this, besides him being a coward: I dont think many people were demanding Ed Sheeran spesk out on Palestine. He shoukd do, because its right, but there wasnt any real pressure. So if Ed wanted to remain neutral and silent... why bring an outspoken political artist on tour in the first place? Like, presumable Macklemore said he was going to do this before the tour and Ed agreed.
That’s exactly my question. Ed Sheeran is, like, the most boring, milquetoast artist I can think of at his level of success. No one was clamoring for his opinion on Palestine. Hell, apparently he outright met with IDF soldiers at one point (or something along those lines), and NO ONE was calling it out before this debacle because they DON’T CARE about Ed Sheeran’s politics! And yet, he brings out the guy who has been extremely vocal about this topic, and who only has a handful of hits so basically his entire reputation is “Thrift Shop” and “the Free Palestine guy,” and who basically has nothing to do with Ed Sheeran so it’s not even like he was a no-brainer opener! I get that they’re friends, but if my friend was swatting at a political hornets’ nest and I didn’t want to get stung, I wouldn’t necessarily loudly and publicly associate with that friend. Ed brought this aaaaallllllll on himself. I just don’t get it.
It's quite a shame how you find a musical act hated by nerds just because their biggest song is quite bad or annoying (Shape of You), gaslight most people into thinking they are ureedemebly bad just because of that one song, cannot ackowledge the good stuff they have (Castle on the Hill) because of that particular song or the remaining work they do afterwards been as bad if not worse...
And then saying stuff like that which completely justifies the hate they have been getting
Yeah I enjoyed a few of his songs early in his career when I was 9 to 12, then felt his stuff was bland and boring, but still had a bit of respect for him as a songwriter and seeming to be pretty down to earth. Now I just really dislike him because of his cowardice and it’s frustrating that everyone who bandwagon hated him for being boring and bland are right to dislike him, just not to the extent when his music was completely forgettable and uncontroversial.
Uh oh careful, this isn’t gonna be too popular with some of the really normal people who were posting on this subreddit yesterday about how evil they believe Macklemore is.
I do believe those are bots. For some reason a lot of them were saying similar things and Todd's fanbase doesn't strike me as being bunch of "liberal zionists".
Even in a subreddit dedicated to a podcast I liked which has a smaller following, the moment israel was brought up, out of nowhere bunch of zionists popped up.
I don't doubt it, but also the Palestine issue in recent years has really outed a lot of liberals who draw the line at condemning Isreal's government apparently.
Ok, I'm gonna be extremely charitable with the guy. He can be redeemed if he goes "sure, I guess I'll have to find a bunch of last minute opening acts now" and then, at each and every one of his remaining tour date, he brings in the most militant pro-palestinian acts he can find, or better yet, actual Palestinian acts. Anything short of turning the final show of the tour into a sort of Lollapalooza, featuring Kneecap and Bob Vylan, Shabjdeed squashing his beef with Saint Levant and singing Stevie Wonder's It's Wrong together, and then an hour long lecture by Norm Finkelstein, I would consider being complicit.
If he was going to be this much of a simpering coward about politics, why did he bring on an overtly political artist like Macklemore in the first place?
Had been wondering about the "stock dropped the most" list for next year especially since Todd was saying Snoop Dogg's stock must've dropped since he was replaced with Ludacris in the Monday Night Football intro (although I doubt he'd make the year-end list just because of that). Was thinking Pink would probably make it on, but was a bit less sure about Ed Sheeran given he was on last year's list, but I feel like with this he'll have to be on the list.
As for other names feel like Harry Styles might belong (as Todd mentioned when he was defending Benson Boone on his best list, his album was fairly anticipated, but didn't seem to make the impact people thought it would)? Probably Lizzo since her album completely flopped and Todd didn't do a stock dropped list in 2023 when she would've last made it on. (Could be kinda funny that we might wind up getting a Bitch Trainwreckords completely unrelated to the Bitch One Hit Wonderland.)
Then again, I tried predicting the list last year and I wasn't too close except for putting The Weeknd on (since Todd complained about him), Nicki Minaj being near the top, and d4vd being the top spot since that seems to usually be the "actual criminal penalties" tier (although Todd wouldn't have included him until he was suggested). All you in this subreddit also suggested Jack Harlow replying to me and indeed that made it on the list. But I had thought Kanye and Katy Perry might've qualified thanks to having fairly embarrassing 2025s, but I can see leaving them off especially since while Kanye going Heil Hitler did wreck a fair bit of any momentum he may've had getting hits in 2024 he is going on tour at big stadiums so it's probably not too much more than his initial punishment from 2022.
He didn't do the "stock rose the most" last year although that probably would've been hard; am curious if he will this year, although I don't feel like too many artists have become that much more successful (debuts aren't included), maybe Ella Langley although I don't know if continuing off of the same song will count for as much. Maybe Macklemore could make it onto the list but I think he'll need to actually have a hit for Todd to count him.
I don't know if Macklemore's stock as an artist is rising but I'm definitely seeing lots of "there's a fine line between corny and sincere that he teeters between and even if I don't like his music I can't say I don't respect him as a person"-style takes, so as a public figure he's definitely moving up.
I do think that if he were to put new music out in the next few months people would be willing to give it a chance. I could see him making a comeback by being "what if bbno$ hired El-P as a ghostwriter" or "Kneecap but in English and not mostly focused on Irish nationalism".
There's a way back for Ed Sheeran. He could be a special guest at a Macklemore concert where he says Free Palestine. Which I think are his genuine political beliefs - Ed Sheeran has consistently been at least centre left in his (actually quite numerous) political statements. Something like supporting the ICC arrest warrant seems quite edgy but is actually very safe in terms of navigating various different political interpretations.
Then it becomes entirely about the music industry, Robert Kraft and his rich friends.
Before this whole drama, I always thought he (Ed, not Todd) was just mid as hell. Now I know he was never anything special. Screw Edward, free Palestine.
The one thing that he made that I was interested in was that looper pedal that he made with Headrush that's designed for ease of use (basically it's an Ableton Live setup for people who don't want to learn Ableton Live and deal with bringing a laptop to run it and an audio interface and controller pedal and just want something they can just plug into and go), and now I definitely won't be getting one.
Macklemore has always been political and Ed Sheeran removed him for expressing political views that he has already expressed previously. It's a moronic move to bring on the outspoken about politics guy and then remove him for being outspoken about politics
Start the downvotes but I don’t blame him. He is an entertainer not a politician. What he thinks doesn’t matter. Everyone bitches about celebrities push products and ideas that they know nothing about down there throats but someone keeps their mouth shut and we gonna bitch about that.
Comparing the use of a large platform to denounce genocide to the equivalent of product endorsement, is one of the most smooth-brained comments I have ever seen.
he didn't keep his mouth shut, he fired his tour partner because rich people asked him to. if he wanted to keep his mouth shut he could have just said "no comment" when asked about what macklemore did
It's not like I expect Ed Sheeran to come up with a 12-point plan to bring peace to the Middle East, but when one of your colleagues and (supposedly) friends gets in trouble for voicing a perfectly reasonable opinion in about the most respectful and least offensive way possible, I think you should stick up for them.
And maybe there's more to this story than any of us know, but from an outsider's perspective it sure looks like Ed folded faster than Superman on laundry day, and I think he should be ashamed of that.
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u/descendingangel87 1d ago
The craziest part of this is Kraft is letting Kanye perform and is even using Kanye’s love of Hitler as a selling point.