CREDITS
Artist: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, featuring Mary Lambert
Official web: https://macklemore.com/
Song: “Same Love”
Released: 18 July 2012 Genre: Hip Hop
Runtime: 5:20
Label: Macklemore LLC
Songwriter(s): Ryan Lewis, Ben Haggerty, Mary Lambert
Producer(s): Ryan Lewis
Lyrics: https://genius.com/Macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-same-love-lyrics
Music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0 Director(s): Ryan Lewis and Jon Jon Augustavo
“SAME LOVES” BY MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS
“Same Love” is a song released by the Washingtonian hip hop duo known as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and formed by Ben Haggerty (Seattle, Washington, 1983) and Ryan S. Lewis (Spokane, Washington, 1988). The highly successful song is part of The Heist (2012), the first album released by the duo, which split in 2017. Recorded in February 2012, when Washington was immersed in the campaign for Referendum 74—
on the legalization of same-sex marriage—, this song opposes explicitly the discrimination suffered by homosexual people in historical, political and social terms. It is no coincidence that the duo decided to collaborate with another singer from Washington, Mary Lambert, who is, unlike Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, homosexual.
Mary Lambert wrote the chorus based on her own experience as a lesbian in a Catholic environment. In this part of the song, she claims that homosexual people cannot simply change their sexuality and defends that she feels “warm” with a female partner. The rest of the lines are all rapped by Macklemore. The song begins with him affirming that when he was a little boy, he was so influenced by the stereotypes usually related to gay men that he believed he was homosexual just because he was identified with some of them.
The stereotypes connected with his being into art and keeping his room tidy, which are not related to sexuality in any possible way. Then, the rapper alludes to how conservative and religious Americans still defend that homosexuality can be “cured with some treatment and religion” and challenges this idea by stressing that they quote from the Bible to justify their homophobia but forget about the Christian message of fraternity and universal love in their discrimination against gay and lesbian people. Later in the song, Macklemore affirms that he also went to church as a child, but that he did not learn the
Andrea Delgado López, American Music Videos: Lessons about the Nation 31 hatred that some Christians still exert on LGBTIQ+ people: “When I was at church they taught me something else/If you preach hate at the service, those words aren’t anointed/
That holy water that you soak in has been poisoned”. Macklemore also reflects on the homophobia embedded in hip-hop culture, of which he is part, and on how homophobia has emerged in the USA along with other types of discrimination in terms of gender or race or religion. Finally, in the third and last verse, Macklemore encourages his listeners to combat homophobia.
The music video was directed by Ryan Lewis and Jon Jon Augustavo, a Filipino-American film and music video director that has collaborated with the duo in other successful videos such as “Thrift Shop” (2012) and “Can’t Hold Us” (2011). The film centers on the life of a gay man, from his birth to his eventual death. They begin with the blinding light of a hospital, where the protagonist’s mother, accompanied by her partner, is giving birth. The song begins with a tender image of a pair of baby’s feet. Then, different images of children playing appear while Macklemore speaks about his own childhood in the song. Girls appear playing with dolls and boys playing sports. Additionally, little girls and boys appear kissing, suggesting how heterosexist ideas are projected on people from a very young age. One of the little boys that appear here is the main protagonist, a boy who enjoys playing rugby with his father as a child and as a teenager. The protagonist, now a teenager, appears at different parties, where he seems to have fun until they play the game “spin the bottle” or they have to dance in pairs, two clear common traditions based on heterosexuality. Then, intertwined with different allusions to American racism and involvement in wars, the protagonist, who is now a man, introduces his male partner to his family. His parents seem to be profoundly Christian, which prevents the father from accepting his son’s sexuality. The protagonist continues with his relationship anyway, but not without problems. Although the couple seems to be happy, they have to face homophobic comments from other men in the streets. Finally, the couple gets married in a Christian church, which further stresses the need to end with homophobia in religion. The wedding, despite the absence of the protagonist’s father, ends up being a very cheerful celebration. Macklemore and Mary Lambert appear as two of its many guests. Finally, images of the birth of the protagonist are mixed with images of an elderly version of him, probably dying in the hospital but giving his hand to his beloved husband. Therefore, the video presents a positive ending, fostering empathy towards homosexual people and probably encouraging the audience to support same-sex marriage. Although the narration of the protagonist’s story ends here, the video continues for almost two minutes more. After a declaration in support of Referendum 74, the credits appear along with images of both gay and lesbian couples and, finally, an image of the female priest that married the protagonist and his husband.
The crucial role that mainstream culture has in fostering ideas of different nature, some of them empowering, others contributing to subordination, cannot be denied. The dominant heterosexism of society has been reflected in mainstream hip-hop culture, which has, in general terms, replicated the idea of men dominating an objectified female.
This is still the case with many rappers but, luckily, this is changing and this song has certainly been part of the change. It is not usually the case that a rapper begins a song claiming that he identified himself with what has traditionally been considered non-masculine but it is even more surprising that a rap song emphasizes the voice and
Andrea Delgado López, American Music Videos: Lessons about the Nation 32 feelings of a lesbian woman. Similarly, not many rap videos focus exclusively on the story of a gay man. Thus, this song directly combats the toxic masculinity that usually dominates hip hop by showing that there are other possible and valid ways to love.
Nevertheless, much more needs to be achieved in hip-hop culture. It is important to take into account that both Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are male—although Mary Lambert is given voice, her role in the song is secondary—, white and heterosexual. Hip hop still needs more intersectionality to end with its heteropatriarchal predominance. However, in a country that still needed to wait three years after the release of the song to see that same-sex marriage was legalized in all fifty states that form it, this song was really needed. As Macklemore raps concerning the Referendum 74: the song “isn’t gonna solve it all/ But it’s a damn good place to start”.
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