Rapper Macklemore is being praised online after he shared a new song that supports Palestine and student protests happening around the world.
After releasing his new track, “Hind’s Hall,” Macklemore has achieved a huge win on social media.
The rapper shared the song, which supports Palestine and student protests, on his social media accounts on May 6. It also pays tribute to 6-year-old Hind Rajab, a Palestinian child who was killed by the Israeli military days after she had called emergency services begging to be rescued. The song’s title refers to the name pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University gave to a building they occupied on campus.
The accompanying video for “Hind’s Hall” is made up of clips of people protesting and showing support for Palestinians, plus various clips of police officers and politicians. After it was uploaded online, it quickly went viral. At the time of writing, it had received 31.3 million views on X (formerly Twitter), more than 142 million views on Instagram, and 1.2 million views on YouTube.
In the days since sharing the new song, Macklemore has gained thousands of new followers on various social media platforms, according to data from Social Blade, a social media analytics website.
On Instagram, he gained 80,598 new followers on Tuesday, a whopping 257,804 on Wednesday, and another 176,575 on Thursday. At the time of writing, he had a total of 5,927,768 followers on the platform.
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Macklemore has also gained a substantial amount of new followers on X. On Tuesday, he gained 11,883, on Wednesday, it was 32,569, and on Thursday, he accumulated an extra 14,418. Here he has 2,174,408 followers.
HIND’S HALL. Once it’s up on streaming all proceeds to UNRWA. pic.twitter.com/QqZEKmzwZI
— Macklemore (@macklemore) May 6, 2024
On YouTube, he gained an extra 10,000 followers on Tuesday and he accumulated an extra 40,000 on both Wednesday and Thursday. In total, he has 9.66 million YouTube subscribers.
“Hind’s Hall” is now officially available on streaming platforms and Macklemore previously announced that all proceeds would go to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, a relief and human development agency for Palestinian refugees.
The rapper received an avalanche of praise when he first shared the song, including from Tom Morello, a guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist best known for his work with Rage Against the Machine.
“Honestly, @macklemore’s ‘Hind’s Hall’ is the most Rage Against The Machine song since Rage Against The Machine,” he wrote.
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
Physician and activist Jill Stein, who has been vocal about the ongoing war, also commended Macklemore: “This is very powerful. Thank you for creating this, @macklemore.”
In the track, the rapper sampled the song “Ana La Habibi” by Fairuz, one of the most influential and beloved Lebanese artists. Over the years, Lebanon has also been in conflict with Israel.
Macklemore touched on various topics in the song, including American politics and police brutality, and questioned why peaceful protests were being deemed a threat.
The lyrics include, “What is threatenin’ about divesting and wantin’ peace? The problem isn’t the protests, it’s what they’re protestin’,” “Block the barricade until Palestine is free” and “When I was seven, I learned a lesson from Cube and Eazy-E. What was it again? Oh yeah, f*** the police.”
