MACKELMORE Weighs In On Race Debate

Macklemore is the latest hip-hop artist to weigh in on the topic of race in rap music, and how it's affected him.

Following some heated debates between Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks recently, the Grammy winner gave his thoughts during an interview with Hot 97 this week.

"For me, as a white dude—as a white rapper—I'm like, how do I participate in this conversation? How do I participate?" the 31-year-old said.

"How do I get involved on a level where I'm not co-opting the movement or I'm not making it about me, but also realizing the platform I have and the reach that I have, and doing it in an authentic, genuine way. Because race is uncomfortable to talk about. White people, we can just turn off the TV when we're sick of talking about race. We can be like, ‘No, I'm done.'"

"It does not work that way for everybody," Macklemore added. "White ‘liberal' people want to be nice. We don't want to mess up. We don't want to be racists. We want to be like, ‘We're post-racial and we have a black president and we don't need to talk about white privilege. It's all good, right?' It's not the case."

He went on to give credit for his success as a rapper to "white privilege" in America, saying: "Why am I safe? Why can I cuss on a record, have a parental advisory sticker on the cover of my album, yet parents are still like, ‘You're the only rap I let my kids listen to,'" he said. "Why can I wear a hoodie and not be labeled a thug?...The privilege that exists in the music industry is just a greater symptom of the privilege that exists in America. There's no difference."

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