Macklemore: Antisemite or Schmuck?

.@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

At a concert in Seattle, one-time kitsch rapper and now full-throated social consciousness rapper Macklemore wore a costume to make himself look like a bad comic’s stereotypical Jewish man, including a curly hair wig, gold chains and a nose prosthetic.

No one really knows why he wore the get-up at a surprise performance at the Experience Music Project Museum on Friday night (thought, one reason could be that none of the Jews he was mocking would be there on a Friday night… it being Friday night, and all). And no one is sure if the intent of the costume was to be antisemitic.

Intent and reality are often two different things. I’m sure President Obama didn’t intend for people to lose their doctors or their plans under Obamacare. It just, you know, happened.

The folks at The Daily Dot say that Macklemore is Jewish, even though he personally denies it:

Macklemore’s relationship with Judaism is an enduringly odd one: While some self-appointed experts claim he’s one of god’s Chosen people, the man himself denies such ancestry.

He announced his appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2013 by blowing the Shofar, used to announce the beginning of the Jewish High Holidays.

When Lady Gaga put out her latest release, Artpop, it was supposed to signify that that she was going to bring together art and pop culture. Artpop, instead, has been a disaster for the label, costing it $25 million. The music was reviewed unfavorably, to be kind.

Why did it flop? Because when the artist thinks their existence is more important than their art, they usually end up creating art that no one wants. Right, Kanye?

Macklemore has, quite clearly, reached that moment. Who knows what he was trying to pull with the antisemite get-up (maybe he was, as some reported, trying not to be mobbed by fans upon his arrival and just wore the get-up on stage). But this, mixed with his wedding hysteria at the Grammy’s, puts him on the Gaga Train to Laughingstock.

And there’s always room for one more on board.