Wedding Rap

WATCH: Has Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Same Love” Become The Official Marriage Equality Anthem?

It looks as if we finally have an official anthem for the post-SCOTUS ruling on LGBT equality. “Same Love,” a searing ballad by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (featuring additional vocals by Mary Lamber) not only contains gay-specific lyrics it has leaped up 37 spots up the Billboard Hot 100 chart from No. 65 three weeks ago to No. 28 last week.

And then there’s the accompanying video, co-directed by Lewis with Jon Jon Augustavo and Tricia Davis. This clip takes its place alongside Australia’s “It’s Time” short film and the last 10 minutes of Six Feet Under as the most powerful testaments for equality yet made.

But this isn’t just an attempt to mine a hot-button issue for chart success. The act, which has already scored two No. 1 hits with “Thrift Shop” and “Can’t Hold Us,” even takes jabs at the Pat Robertsons of the world with the song’s lyrics:

Playing God, aw nah here we go/America the brave still fears what we don’t know
And God loves all his children, is somehow forgotten/ But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago / I don’t know

According to the New York Times, “On the strength of online streaming more than airplay, the song was No. 5 on the Rap Songs chart, where lyrics in support of gay rights are almost unheard-of. Sales of the single surged 23 percent last week from the previous week to a total of more than 788,000 copies, and views of the single’s video on YouTube had approached 53 million by Sunday.”

The paper also notes that while some urban hip-hop stations perhaps unsurprisingly haven’t rushed to add the song to their rotations,  that it has been getting airplay on a few. Peter Rosenberg, a D.J. on Hot 97 in New York, said his listeners had applauded his decision to play the song on his Sunday night show. He predicts that ‘Same Love’ will become a hit on urban radio, too.”

Here’s hoping.

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