Macklemore is off Ed Sheeran’s tour, and the reason goes way beyond music. After Macklemore spoke about a free Palestine during two New Jersey concerts, Robert Kraft, the Patriots owner who runs Gillette Stadium, admitted he threatened to block Macklemore from his venue and contacted other stadium owners. That chain of phone calls helped push Sheeran to remove Macklemore from the tour. Kraft said the decision came from his longstanding commitment against hate speech and antisemitic rhetoric.
AOC is not staying quiet about it. She told TMZ that Kraft’s involvement was an“abuse of power,”saying that when one person can line up stadiums to censor speech in a specific way, it stops being about one or two artists. She called it a dangerous precedent and said she’s boycotting Ed Sheeran over the situation.
The whole thing raises a bigger question: how much power should a stadium owner have over who performs and what they can say? Fans, artists, and politicians are all weighing in, and the debate isn’t cooling off anytime soon. So what do you think, was Kraft within his rights, or did he go too far?
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.