Macklemore has posted a new song called “Hind’s Hall,” named after the Columbia University building that student protestors recently occupied, reclaimed, and renamed in honor of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. The track samples Lebanese singer Fairuz’s “Ana La Habibi” and comes with a video that features Macklemore’s lyrics, as well as clips of the subjects he’s discussing: pro-Palestine student protesters, politicians, and the war in Gaza. Find the song below.
“Hind’s Hall” is not yet on digital streaming platforms. Once the song is released formally, Macklemore plans to donate all of its streaming proceeds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
On “Hind’s Hall,” Macklemore calls out American politicians, namely President Joe Biden, for whom he says he will not vote in November’s presidential election. He also criticizes his peers in music, rapping, “Never be defeated when freedom’s on the horizon/Yet the music industry’s quiet/Complicit in their platform of silence,” and, “I want a cease-fire/Fuck a response from Drake.”
Last November, Macklemore was invited to give an impromptu speech at a pro-Palestine rally in Washington, D.C. “I don’t know enough,” he told the crowd. “But I know enough that this is a genocide.” His speech followed a statement on October 19 in which the rapper condemned both the Hamas attacks on Israel and Israel’s subsequent assault of Gaza, calling the latter an “unfolding genocide” and a “U.S. backed human catastrophe.”