Macklemore says he was dropped from the remainder of Ed Sheeran's US Loop tour after a wave of venue objections to his 'Free Palestine' remarks, and claims billionaire New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft personally pressured Sheeran to remove him, according to a lengthy Instagram statement posted on Monday, 14 September.
At the centre of his account is a blunt exchange with Sheeran. Told the phrase 'Free Palestine' was 'hurtful to a lot of people', Macklemore says he replied that if those words were more offensive than 'tens of thousands of Palestinian children being killed', then he and Sheeran stood on opposite sides of something far bigger than a tour.