Music

“The Great Macklemore, Praise Macklemore”

Inside the London show devised after the rapper was kicked off Ed Sheeran’s tour, I saw quite a scene.

Behlul Cetinkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images

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Back in 2012, when the novelty hit “Thrift Shop,” about looking awesome in someone’s granddad’s clothes, was being pumped relentlessly into student club nights I was attending, I would have been surprised to be told that a decade-plus later, the rapper behind it would be at the forefront of defending the liberty of Palestine. And yet so it has proved. Macklemore, real name Ben Haggerty, has had a wild couple of months. In September, he was kicked off Ed Sheeran’s tour because Robert Kraft, the billionaire businessman and sports owner, took offense to Macklemore performing his pro-Palestinian protest song “Hind’s Hall” and pressured venue owners around the U.S.…