Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Release "Same Love" Video
Over the summer, Seattle hip hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis released the track "Same Love" in conjunction with Music For Marriage Equality. The track was used as a rallying cry in support for Referendum 74, a public vote to be held next month in Washington, that, if passed, would legalize same-sex marriage. Now that the November 7 vote is approaching, the duo have released the accompanying video, detailing a gay man's life from birth to old age.
Co-directed by Lewis himself, the unflinching video shows both the joys and despairs of growing up gay, from awkward spin-the-bottle games in high school to chants of "faggot" while walking down the street.
When we caught up with Macklemore at Lollapalooza, the rapper explained his personal connection to the track. “I grew up in the Catholic Church, I grew up with two gay uncles and a gay godfather, and I grew up in the hip hop community. So the Catholic Church and hip hop community are known as being very homophobic communities in a lot of ways," Macklemore says.
"I touched on it coming from that perspective, and also coming from the perspective of having gay people in my family and seeing examples of committed, beautiful relationships that have gone on for the last 20, 30 years. And [it was] also [about] holding my community, the hip hop community, accountable for how we use language. We put down a group of people all the time and it gets the pass. That's the one thing: It's still cool to call people the f-word. It's like the ultimate diss."
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