Rapper Macklemore Says He Was Kicked Off Ed Sheeran’s Tour After Robert Kraft ‘Rallied’ Stadium Owners

Macklemore says he was kicked off Ed Sheeran’s “Loop Tour” in America over his anti-Israel comments, saying that the New England Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, “rallied” stadium owners to derail the tour if the rapper was not dropped from the lineup. During a September 4 set at MetLife Stadium, Macklemore said one of the reasons he wanted to join the tour was to say “free Palestine” on stages at venues across America. During that show he called ICE a “terrorist organization” before performing his protest song “Hind’s Hall,” which expresses support for anti-Israel protesters and accuses Israel of carrying out a genocide. Macklemore was scheduled to appear at eight of Mr. Sheeran’s 10 remaining shows in America. The stadiums that vowed to block Macklemore included Gillette Stadium at Foxborough — which is owned by Mr. Kraft — Lincoln Financial Field at Philadelphia, Mercedes-Benz Stadium at Atlanta, Lucas Oil Stadium at Indianapolis, Bank of America Stadium at Charlotte, AT&T Stadium at Arlington, and Raymond James Stadium at Tampa. In a post on Instagram on Monday, Macklemore said, “I’m going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.”“Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him,” the post said. “Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.”The rapper said that Mr. Sheeran was in an “[expletive] up position” and “he knew it.” Mr. Sheeran allegedly told him “the words ‘free Palestine’ and the image of the Palestinian flag were hurtful to a lot of people he spoke with.”“I told him that if those words were more offensive than tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed by Israel, then there was a fundamental disconnect between where those people stood and where I stood. But he couldn’t get past his public facing, ‘I don’t take sides,’” Macklemore said, referring to Mr. Sheeran’s desire to avoid taking public stances on political matters.Macklemore said he believes there is “no neutral position” and that “refusing to take a side doesn’t leave you in the middle.” He added that he hopes his “painful disagreement” and “difficult conversations” with Mr. Sheeran did not end their thirteen year friendship.Despite criticizing Mr. Sheeran’s apolitical stance, he insisted that his post not be written out of “spite” nor was it meant to “tear down his character.” Macklemore suggested that the stadium owners were trying to silence him because he was sharing a stage with “one of the biggest artists in the world,” and they were concerned more artists would speak out against Israel if he was not kicked off the tour — though many singers and Hollywood stars have openly criticized the Jewish state since Hamas’ October 7 massacre. While his time touring with Mr. Sheeran has come to an end, Macklemore wrote that he will consider the tour the “most successful tour [he has] ever been on” if his comments shift the conversation back to Gaza.The promoter of Mr. Sheeran’s tour, Messina Touring, told Rolling Stone on Monday, “As the concert promoter for Ed Sheeran’s U.S. Loop Tour, we have been notified by venues on the upcoming U.S. tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans.”In a statement, Mr. Kraft said Gillette Stadium has a “longstanding commitment to providing a welcoming environment for all guests and ensuring that events held at our venue do not provide a platform for hate speech.” He explained that “based on Macklemore’s recent actions” at Mr. Sheeran’s concerts and “a broader history of antisemitic rhetoric and imagery,” the Kraft Group “determined that his participation in the September 25th and 26th concerts at Gillette Stadium would cross that line.”Mr. Kraft said the decision is “not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf,” but said such activism “should not come at the expense of the Jewish community or obscure the responsibility of Hamas.” He also said he has helped create “athletic and entrepreneurial opportunities,” and that “standing with the Palestinian people and standing against Hamas, antisemitism and hate should not be mutually exclusive.”While Macklemore is currently not welcome at Gillette Stadium, the Patriots owner said he would like the opportunity to have a conversation with the rapper and “discuss the facts, because ultimately our goal is the same — peace for all people, an end to suffering, and an end to all hate.”

Rapper Macklemore Says He Was Kicked Off Ed Sheeran’s Tour After Robert Kraft ‘Rallied’ Stadium Owners

Rapper Macklemore Says He Was Kicked Off Ed Sheeran’s Tour After Robert Kraft ‘Rallied’ Stadium Owners

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