Macklemore

Macklemore explores racism and hip-hop in a new song called “White Privilege II” — rapping about a white person’s position in society with black people fighting injustice — and even namechecks Miley Cyrus, Iggy Azalea and Elvis Presley for appropriating black culture, along with himself.

The track, released Friday, is close to nine minutes long and starts with the Grammy-winning rapper at a march in support of the “Black Lives Matter” movement.

“I wanna take a stance because we are not free, and I thought about it, we are not we,” he raps on the song, released with his musical partner Ryan Lewis. “Am I in the outside looking in? Or am I in the inside looking out?“

“I appreciate his honesty and all the ways he’s looking at racism and his part in it,” Cori Murray, the entertainment director for Essence magazine, said in an interview. “I don’t think there’s an easy answer and I think that he really did just say very plainly, …’I know I’m appropriating black culture but I’m trying to do it in the most authentic way.’“

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis released the song the same week Spike Lee, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and others said they were boycotting the Academy Awards because of two straight years of all-white acting nominees. The Seattle-based duo was not available for an interview for this story, but their website says the song “is the outcome of an ongoing dialogue with musicians, activists, and teachers within our community in Seattle and beyond.”

What has gotten major attention on social media from the song was Macklemore namedropping famous singers who are regularly accused of appropriating black culture.

“You’ve exploited and stolen the music, the moment, the magic, the passion, the fashion you toyed with, the culture was never yours to make better, your Miley, your Elvis, your Iggy Azalea,” Macklemore raps. At another point he says, “We wanna dress like, talk like, walk like, dance like, but we just stand by, we take all we want from black culture, but do we show up for black lives?“

Azalea, known for the hits “Fancy” and “Black Widow,” responded on Twitter after a fan pointed the song out to her.

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