🥁 Don't Even Bang Unless You Plan to Hit Something (Bombs Over Baghdad!) 💣
There is something almost performance-art-like about how pop music culture decides what counts as a scandal.
Take Macklemore. He has been caught in two very different controversies involving Israel and Palestine, and they are worth separating because apparently nobody has time for that anymore.
There was the costume controversy, dating back years, involving an outfit widely criticized as a Jewish caricature. That is one conversation. Then there is Macklemore the political speaker, who has repeatedly used his public platform to advocate for Palestinians, most recently giving a pro-Palestinian speech at a September concert and performing Hind’s Hall. That controversy is about political speech and the consequences of making it onstage.
Those things are not automatically the same thing.
But modern media discourse apparently prefers a blender.
Macklemore has now been removed from the U.S. portion of Ed Sheeran's tour, after his political remarks became a major controversy with venues and promoters. Sheeran says the decision wasn't his, while Macklemore has continued defending his right to speak about Gaza.
And then, almost simultaneously, there is Lil Durk.
A federal jury just acquitted Durk of charges accusing him of orchestrating a murder-for-hire scheme connected to the 2022 shooting that killed Quando Rondo's cousin. The jury deliberated for three days before finding him not guilty. Durk remains in custody because another federal case is pending.
That is an enormous distinction.
One rapper is losing tour dates because people are arguing over what he said onstage. Another rapper has just walked out of a federal murder-for-hire prosecution with a not-guilty verdict.
And pop culture's machinery can somehow discuss both as if they are simply two more entries in the Celebrity Controversy Spreadsheet.
This is where the whole thing starts feeling like the ultimate level of media-class navel-gazing.
One side gets extremely excited about whether Macklemore's political speech was offensive, antisemitic, courageous, inappropriate, necessary, dangerous, brave, stupid, or some combination of all seven.
The other side gets extremely excited about whether Lil Durk's acquittal proves the system was finally fair, whether the prosecution overreached, whether rap lyrics should have been evidence, and whether everyone should now reconsider everything they thought they knew.
Meanwhile, ordinary pop-music fans are standing outside the velvet rope thinking: May we kindly listen to the music?
There is a legitimate conversation to have about political speech, antisemitism, Palestinian rights, artistic expression, and the responsibility of celebrities. There is also a legitimate conversation about criminal prosecutions, evidence, jury verdicts, and the tendency to treat rappers' lyrics as documentary evidence.
But sometimes the internet seems determined to turn every complicated subject into a personality contest.
Macklemore's costume is not his speech. His speech is not a criminal conviction. Lil Durk's acquittal is not proof that every allegation against him was imaginary.
And perhaps that is the strangest part.
Pop music has become a place where everybody is yelling about morality while standing on completely different planets.
