When I first heard Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ song ‘Same Love’, I was pleasantly surprised that a hip hop song could be so progressive.
Amid the slew of rappers rhyming about bitches, drugs, money and guns, here’s a song that honestly tells us that all of that is actually rubbish, and that we are doing something very wrong here.
It’s the 21st Century. Discrimination should no longer be an issue. We have history to prove that it’s just plain stupid.
Hundreds and thousands of others have died or risked their lives to fight for their rights – human rights – all over the world. But still, inequality is worse today than ever. Race, gender, and sexual orientation are still very big issues, and gay rights being the main one that is very hotly contested today.
For goodness’ sake, people. Mara why? Why are we still fighting for human rights every single friggin’ day?
Why is it surprising that a hip hop song can be progressive?
Why are we applauding Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for speaking the truth that should be a universal truth?
Why is it that the genre in which these artists are making music is so entrenched in hatred of ‘the other’?
Because hatred is being sung in every other line and it makes me sick.
Gay marriage has been legal for just under 20 years in South Africa, but people are still violently homophobic, and that is entrenched through social media and some of the music people listen to.
It doesn’t matter what an artist says outside of the album. It’s inconsequential when what is on repeat on everybody’s iPods is the song that says things like “Put the gat to his legs all the way up his skirt/Because this is one faggot that I had to hurt.”
Those lyrics from NWA’s Nobody Move are not the first and depressingly not the last homophobic statements we have been exposed to in the genre.
Even though the Beastie Boys called their album 1986 album Licensed to Ill, it was going to be called Don’t Be a Faggot. Good thing they didn’t because even though they have since apologised for the silly things they may have suggested on their debut, the album would be out there for all eternity.
In Notorious B.I.G.’s song 10 Crack Commandments, he sings “Money and blood don’t mix, like two dicks and no bitch.”
Nas, however progressive you may think he is, called gay rights activist Jay Z ‘Gay-Z’ in Takeover.
Bizarrely, Jay Z then allowed Kanye to spit out: “It's crazy how you can go from being Joe Blow/To everybody on your dick, no homo” in Run This Town.
Makes me wonder where his loyalties lie.
And of course, no homophobic rant can be complete without Lil Wayne adding his two bob’s worth. On Go DJ, he says “You homo niggas getting AIDS in the ass.”
Same Love, on the other hand, goes as follows:
“If I was gay, I would think hip-hop hates me.
Have you read the YouTube comments lately?
"Man, that's gay" gets dropped on the daily.
We become so numb to what we're saying.
A culture founded on oppression,
yet we don't have acceptance for 'em.
Call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board.
A word rooted in hate, yet our genre still ignores it.
Gay is synonymous with the lesser.
It's the same hate that's caused wars from religion.
Gender to skin color, the complexion of your pigment.
The same fight that led people to walk outs and sit ins.
It's human rights for everybody, there is no difference!"
I would like to hear that on repeat instead of the bullshit spewing from Lil Wayne’s mouth.
Lyrics can affect our worldview, and definitely speak the words we can’t speak. Love songs say the things that we are too shy to say. By the same token, songs of hatred say the things that people who hate are afraid to say, for fear of its repercussions.
We speak our minds through an artist’s eloquence and we should be able to. Isn’t that what poetry is about?
But when those songs preach blinding hatred, no thanks. Poetry should illuminate. Not lead humanity into darkness.
So, yes, even though this should be a norm, I am applauding Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for Same Love.
“I might not be the same, but that's not important.
No freedom till we're equal, damn right I support it.”