Rapper Macklemore went after President Biden in a new song on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and recent pro-Palestinian student protests.
“The blood is on your hands, Biden, we can see it all,” the rapper says in a video featuring the song, titled “Hind’s Hall,” seemingly in reference to what pro-Palestinian protesters renamed a building on Columbia University’s campus when they took it over last week. The video was posted Monday to the social platform X.
“And f‑‑‑ no, I’m not voting for you in the fall,” Macklemore continues in the song.
The video also features video of what are presumably students confronting law enforcement during the protests, as well as children in Gaza — with one wrapped in bandages apparently due to wounds from the war.
“If students in tents, posted on the lawn, occupying the quad, is really against the law, and a reason to call in the police and their squad, where does genocide land in your definition, huh?” Macklemore questions in other lyrics in the song.
Macklemore was previously a speaker at a pro-Palestinian protest in the fall of last year in Washington, D.C., shortly after the current conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas began.
“We’ve been told to just be complicit to protect our careers, to protect our interests — and I’m not going to do it anymore,” the Seattle rapper said at the time. “I know enough that this is a genocide.”
Pro-Palestinian protests focused on Palestinian human rights and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza amid the current war have quickly popped up on college campuses across the U.S. However, the protests have also faced accusations of antisemitism, which protesters have pushed back against.
Macklemore himself was previously accused of antisemitism, according to multiple outlets, when he wore a large fake nose, wig and a beard, which critics said evoked antisemitic stereotypes, during a performance in Seattle in 2014.