Music

Was Le1f right to rant on Macklemore's "Same Love" success?

by Tyler Munro

While everyone was busy giving Miley Cyrus shit about cultural appropriation and ass wiggling, Le1f was apparently fuming at the success Macklemore’s “Same Love” has seen. This happened after the song won the VMA for “Best Video with a Social Message.”

Naturally, Le1f took to Twitter to vent. He’s deleted the rant since, but Pigeons & Planes grabbed these screenshots before the tweets vanished:

And so on and so forth.

This is an ongoing argument. For many, the biggest issue is that Mary Lambert, an out-Lesbian who sings the songs unmistakable hook, was left standing silent as Macklemore and Ryan Lewis accepted the award. As Noisey put it, “he seems to strive to be a voice for those who did not ask him to be their voice. He is the ultimate fulfillment of the White Knight archetype, riding in on his noble steed (as played by Ryan Lewis) to save a day that was doing fine on its own.”

Which is fair. But at the same time, at least he’s saying it. The same argument can be lobbed at Le1f, an openly gay MC who says things like “gay people don’t care about your video about gay people” and that “gay kids don’t come out because of Macklemore videos.”

If Macklemore is an example of the Internet’s White Knight, then what does that make him? He’s absolutely entitled to speak his opinions on the song, which seem to be an extension of his reaction to “Thrift Shop,” which some speculate bites his own song “Wut,” and as a gay man, he’s absolutely right to be frustrated that a straight white dude is getting all the press for the fight he’s been in presumably his entire life.

Unfortunately, Le1f doesn’t get to dictate how people feel. He can’t say that gay people don’t care about the video; Mary Lambert probably does. He can’t say that gay people don’t come out to Macklemore, as if there’s some unspoken rule against it.

Like we said, he’s deleted the tweets, and maybe this is why. Twitter is there to vent on, but sometimes we let our passions get the best of us. There’s an argument that Macklemore should be faulted for being a pretty plain, otherwise unspectacular MC, but sometimes getting the message out needs the lowest common denominator. If you agree with the message, does it matter how it reaches people?