Macklemore & Lewis’ “Same Love” is more than a pro-gay marriage anthem
In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well—some inspired by a weekly theme and some not, but always songs worth hearing. This week: In anticipation of this weekend’s Grammy Awards, the five songs up for the 2014 Song Of The Year award.
At least in their music, hip-hop’s biggest artists weren’t too concerned about civil rights in 2013: Jay Z may have donated the “charity” of his “presence” at the occasional Trayvon Martin rally, but his album was more focused on reiterating that he is still very rich, while Kanye West eloquently quoted Martin Luther King’s “thank God almighty… free at last!” to refer to unrestrained breasts. Meanwhile, on the most pressing civil rights issue of the times—gay marriage, which he professes to support—the exhaustingly clueless Eminem suggested on “Rap God” that he might “break a motherfuckin’ table over the back of a couple faggots and crack it in half.” In the face of such squandered opportunities to use rap to say something meaningful about anyone’s rights, it was utterly refreshing to see the somewhat geeky, un-posturing Macklemore (along with utterly nondescript sidekick Ryan Lewis) step up to the plate and deliver thoughtful commentary on the changing tide on gay rights in America.
