Tom Morello, best known as a member of the politically charged rap-rock outfit Rage Against The Machine, has co-signed Macklemore‘s new song in support of Palestine as the region remains in a state of turmoil.
On Monday (May 6), just hours after the Seattle rapper’s “Hind’s Hall” went live across social-media platforms, the veteran guitarist endorsed the track for its support of the college-campus protests across the world decrying the ongoing war in Gaza, which has already claimed thousands of lives over the past six months.
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“Honestly @macklemore’s “Hind’s Hall” is the most Rage Against The Machine song since Rage Against The Machine,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), referring to the records he released with his group back in the 90s.
Earlier that same day, he recalled his own activism from when he was enrolled at Harvard University after the institution threatened to suspend students for pushing back against the aforementioned conflict, prompting them to march to the interim president’s house.
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About it, he shared: “In 1986 @Harvard threatened us as well with suspension for protesting apartheid S. Africa. Our response was similar. Well done. Univ. Pres. Garber emailed alumni today soliciting support for his crackdown.
“I wrote him back with a counter proposal: that he accede to the students demands & end the school’s complicity in war crimes. Problem solved.”
Honestly @macklemore’s “Hind’s Hall” is the most Rage Against The Machine song since Rage Against The Machine.
— Tom Morello (@tmorello) May 7, 2024
In 1986 @Harvard threatened us as well with suspension for protesting apartheid S. Africa. Our response was similar. Well done. Univ. Pres. Garber emailed alumni today soliciting support for his crackdown. I wrote him back with a counter proposal: that he accede to the students… https://t.co/o7kmcEysP7
— Tom Morello (@tmorello) May 7, 2024
Whereas a number of notable academic institutions in the United States have bred student-led demonstrations in support of Palestine, Columbia University has been central to movement. In April, a group made up of staff, students, alumni and allies took over the institution’s Hamilton Hall and renamed it “Hind’s Hall” — an homage to Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was tragically killed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) earlier this year.
Earlier this week, Macklemore released a single titled “Hind’s Hall” in solidarity with the nationwide demonstrations and promised to donate all proceeds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East once it goes live on streaming platforms.
“The people they won’t leave/ What is threatening about divesting and wanting peace?/ The problem isn’t the protest, it’s what they’re protesting/ It goes against what our country is funding,” he spits over a video montage of law-enforcement officials uprooting college encampments. “Block the barricade until Palestine is free/ When I was seven, I learnt a lesson from [Ice] Cube and Eazy-E/ What was it again? Oh yeah, fuck the police.”
He continues: “Who gets the rights to defend and who gets the right of resistance/ Has always been about dollars and the color of your pigment/ But white supremacy is finally on blast, screaming ‘Free Palestine’ till they’re home at last.
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“We see the lies in them, claiming it’s anti-Semitic to be anti-Zionist/ I’ve seen Jewish brothers and sisters out there and riding/ In solidarity and screaming ‘Free Palestine’ with ’em/ Organizing, unlearning and finally cutting ties with a state/ That’s got to rely on an apartheid system to uphold an occupying violent history been repeating for the last 75/ The Nakba never ended, the colonizer lied.”
Regarding the majority of his peers being silent on the matter, he adds: “The music industry’s quiet, complicit in their platform of silence/What happened to the artist, what do you got to say?/ If I was on a label you could drop me today/ And be fine with it ’cause the heart fed my page/ I want a ceasefire, fuck a response from Drake.”
