At an event at Seattle’s EMP Museum on Friday, May 16, Macklemore sported a large fake nose, a hat, wig and a thick black beard as he performed hit song, “Thrift Shop”. This performance sparked controversy, as the rapper was accused of insensitivity, while singing a song about being cheap and frugal, and donning a costume that featured offensive stereotypically Jewish traits.
The performance was shocking to many, especially because Macklemore previously won four Grammy Awards for his hit with Ryan Lewis, “Same Love,” a song that preaches cultural consciousness and sensitivity.
Actor and comedian, Seth Rogen, expressed his disgust and offense toward the performance in a tweet reading, “@macklemore, first you trick people into thinking you’re a rapper, now you trick them into thinking you’re Jewish?”
“Earlier in the day I thought it would be fun to dress up in a disguise and go incognito to the event, so that I could walk around unnoticed and surprise the crowed with a short performance,” he defends himself. The rapper asserts that he did not aim to embody or propagate any stereotype or mimic any group, and was only throwing together a “random costume.”
“@macklemore really?? Because if I told someone to put together an anti Semitic Jew costume, they’d have that exact shopping list,” Rogen tweets at the rapper, clearly not believing his statement.
Macklemore continues to apologize in a statement released today on his website.
