They're canceling him, man. His career is over. And it's my favorite rapper, too. Mack Lemore. A man who, some might say, is the greatest rapper of all time. Some might say that. The Grammys love him. Sports teams love him. But recent comments from the Seattle rapper, singer, and songwriter have gotten him in some hot water.

Specifically, one statement where he says, and I quote, "f– America." It's really offensive and insensitive that he would say such a thing. The idea of effing America is disgusting and repulsive and really destroys my very soul. No, but seriously, I know I'm taking the piss out of this whole situation. But Macklemore basically came out and said, "f– America" In light of America's support of the ongoing genocide in Palestine that is being initiated by Israel, who we've been arming and funding to the teeth over the last year and long before that, too.

If you've been following this situation on social media for the past 12 months, the horrific images coming out of Palestine should most definitely shock you. They are far more offensive than anything Macklemore said in that statement. In fact, "f– America" probably ranks pretty low in terms of the stuff that you could say in reaction to all of this. It's pretty vanilla in the grander scheme of things. Still though, this was enough to see Macklemore dropped from the Neon City Festival in Las Vegas.

Now, in light of getting dropped, Macklemore has made a public statement. He acknowledges that he's been feeling a lot of grief and anger and how that drove him to say what he said, that maybe he should have put it in better words. But I also like that he didn't necessarily back off here from the very sad and grim realities that we're seeing in Palestine, in Gaza at the moment, and how that's essentially what drove him to say this. So while Macklemore is toning down the rhetoric a bit, I like that he's not toning down the facts.

With that being said, though, I'm still very happy that he said what he said because I think if there's any audience of people out there that needs a reminder of how awful this situation is, it is the very normie audience that follows what Macklemore does. I mean, as much as all of us have loved to see some of our favorite alternative and underground artists over the past year speak out against this situation, very rightfully so, Macklemore fans are much more likely to be uninitiated with this stuff. So for him to come out with that "Hinds Hall" track and "Hinds Hall 2", and make this statement that he did is pretty badass on his part.

And look, I don't care if the way that he phrased it or if the quality of the songs in your opinion is corny or anything like that. I know that making social and political statements on a platform as an artist or putting that stuff into your music these days isn't always perceived as cool. But what's even more uncool than that is that some artists do really see a lot of their opportunities get thrown up on the chopping block if they're real about how they feel about their careers or if they're real about how they feel about various social issues. I mean, it's telling that somebody who is as big as Kendrick Lamar, for example, and has the platform that he does and has the reputation that he does for addressing social issues and being woke, that thing, even he publicly has not touched this issue with a 10-foot pole.

Generally speaking, especially now, we are pretty much 12 months into this genocide, and it is a genocide. The genocidal actions being taken in this war, and the war crimes being committed, have been recognized through the UN, and through multiple human rights bodies. There's a reason that you had a bunch of world leaders walking out of Netanyahu's recent speech over there on the UN floor. Because, again, everyone who's actually been paying attention to this situation knows he has no interest in peace, negotiating, bringing this to a halt, de-escalating. He is an angry, foolish, murderous clown. And it should be treated as such.

And it's just further proof that we live in cuckoo upside-down land, that you can have parts of your career destroyed as an artist by acknowledging that, acknowledging America's complicity in it, and also, in addition to that, using a swear word or two. And the irony is just so insane that an artist that many consider to be unserious, Macklemore, is leading the charge on this issue de facto because who has the platform that he does that is making this much of a stink over it? Yeah, he's at the forefront.

Meanwhile, the list of artists out there who you could say are like the intelligentsia of the music scene, they're the smartest, they're the most artsy, they're the most ahead of the curve, they're the most thoughtful, they're the ones making the most profound music out there today. A lot of them are either silent or they're low-key, just pro-Israel theocracy haven't even flinched at the fact that they're now just bombing other countries and eliciting responses from Iran, which is most definitely going to pull us into World War III if that manages to escalate beyond this point, fingers crossed that it doesn't. But we're just on the verge of some serious global chaos here. One of the biggest loudest mainstream artists about is Macklemore. It's Macklemore who's out here taking hits over this.

I will leave this by saying that I'm not big on pressuring artists, per se, to say this or say that or say this other thing when it comes to public statements on social issues. Who really should be talking about this stuff is our elected officials, pressure them. Make your voices heard with them. Make their lives inconvenient until they're responding to you. That's a better use of your time.

But if an artist is going to go out of their way to say something like Macklemore has, it should be commended. It's commendable that he's been doing it. And personally, I hope that he doesn't stop even in the face of this festival drop. I have a very sore throat and I'm not feeling well, so I'm going to end this here. But thank you very much. You're the best.

Anthony Fantano. Macklemore. Forever.