1 in early May.Ī few stations went a different direction. In March, the duo’s radio promoters started urging radio stations to play “Can’t Hold Us,” a playful rap about having success without a major label deal that eventually rose to No. Lewis released a video for the song with a rosy depiction of a gay marriage that political organizers said helped influenced the vote. Some profits from the single were donated to the advocacy group Washington United for Marriage. Released as a single in July 2012, they offered it as a theme song to groups working to pass Referendum 74, which legalized same-sex marriage in Washington State. “I just wanted to hold myself accountable and hold hip-hop accountable and bring up an issue that was being pushed under the rug,” he said.įrom the start, the duo intended “Same Love” to have a political impact. He also wanted to write a song, he said, to support his two gay uncles and his gay godfather in Seattle, all of whom are in committed relationships. He said he thought the epithets routinely heard in rap music might be partly to blame, and that denying gay adults the right to marry might also contribute to despair among gay teenagers. In a telephone interview, Macklemore said he composed the rap in March 2012 after reading a news article about a teenager who committed suicide after being bullied. “I can’t change even if I tried,” she sings, and “My love/ My Love/ My Love/ She keeps me warm/ She keeps me warm.” He states plainly where he stands on the marriage question: “No freedom till we’re equal/ Damn right I support it.” Then Mary Lambert, an openly lesbian singer, delivers a stirring chorus over Mr. In the song, Macklemore takes other rappers to task for using gay slurs, ties abusive language to bullying of gay teenagers and mocks religious leaders for opposing gay marriage. “This is a song that has the most unequivocal pro-equality message to ever be expressed in a major single, and it’s really reached a wide range of audiences,” said Rich Ferraro, a spokesman for GLAAD, a gay-right organization that tracks media. It also hit the charts in February, just as several states began taking up the issue and the Supreme Court was considering challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and to California’s ban on same-sex marriage.īut Macklemore has offered up an overtly political message in favor of gay marriage from the point of view of a straight man. Radio programmers say “Same Love” seems to have captured the nation’s mood, reflecting growing support among young adults for gay marriage in polling. “It’s indicative of a changing attitude.” “The fact that a song solely dedicated to the message of marriage equality is climbing the charts and quickly becoming a popular song across the country is a big deal,” said Charlie Joughin, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay rights organization. That is no small feat for a rap duo from Seattle without a major-label contract, but their single “Same Love” has the potential to be groundbreaking in a different way: it is the first song to explicitly embrace and promote gay marriage that has made it into the Top 40, gay-rights advocates and radio executives said. 1 hits with the lighthearted novelty song “Thrift Shop” and its bouncy follow-up “Can’t Hold Us.” Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are one of the hottest acts on pop radio these days, having scored No.
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