The rapper Macklemore being removed from pop singer Ed Sheeran’s tour after his pro-Palestine comments stoked the ire of many, including Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Ocasio-Cortez was approached by TMZ about the situation as she left the Capitol on Wednesday (September 15), replying “I am” when asked if she’d change the station if Ed Sheeran’s music came on in the car.
“It’s not just what has happened with the act, and not just in removing Macklemore from the lineup,” she continued, “but when you see what Robert Kraft did to line up all of the stadiums to censor speech in that one specific way, it’s become clear that this is not just about one music artist or two music artists, but this is about how just a handful of stadium owners and the elite can prevent an entire massive issue, in this case the genocide in Gaza.”
Macklemore was criticized for his speech calling for justice for the Palestinian people during the tour’s stop at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on September 4-5. The Grammy Award-winning rapper shared that Sheeran informed him that Kraft banned him from the next stop, Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Kraft would confirm his action, claiming that Macklemore was using demeaning rhetoric against the Jewish community.
Ocasio-Cortez also said that such pressure to remove Macklemore could be inovked with other issues such as artificial intelligence (AI).She also expessed some sympathy for Sheeran, making a point to stress that she and the public weren’t privy to the workings of his contracts for the tour.
“I do think that the right thing to do, is to speak out about it,” she said, adding: “If they’re saying that to him, right, then they can say it to anybody, and at what point does it stop?” Ocasio-Cortez did stress that Kraft’s role in the situation should be focused on more.
