Professional acquired taste Macklemore has run into bother with some seriously ill-advised on-stage fancy dress.
On Friday, the rapper and confrere Ryan Lewis played a short set in Seattle, running through a 15-minute surprise show at the EMP Museum. He wore disguise for the performance, appearing in a curly black wig and hooked prosthetic nose. Various websites have noted that the costume has heavily anti-Semitic implications – something not helped by the fact the rapper was performing penny-pinching calling-card ‘Thrift Shop’. Aggrieved commenters include Seth Rogen, who tweeted:
.@macklemore, first you trick people into thinking you’re a rapper, now you trick them into thinking you’re Jewish? pic.twitter.com/3rtaE4GHje — Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) May 18, 2014
Macklemore has responded by saying that any slur was entirely inadvertent:
A fake witches nose, wig, and beard = random costume. Not my idea of a stereotype of anybody. — Macklemore (@macklemore) May 19, 2014
‘Thrift Shop’ recently topped Billboard’s list of the top 100 tracks in the history of the Hot Rap Songs chart.
Update: Macklemore has now released a statement about the performance in question, apologising for any offence caused.