Meet Hollis Wong-Wear And Jamila Woods, The Women Of Color Behind Macklemore's 'White Privilege II'

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have released an eight-minute song featuring Jamila Woods, “White Privilege II,” about white privilege, beginning with Macklemore’s own feeling about whether he can meaningfully participate in a Black Lives Matter march and spiraling into different movements questioning what his own white privilege means.

On a certain level, “White Privilege II” is Macklemore acknowledging his core audience; this song is not necessarily for people of color, it is exactly for the presumably young white kids who consume his every move but perhaps don’t listen to other rappers, as he points out with an interlude in the song. (“You’re the only rap I listen to” when leveled at non-black rappers is thinly veiled code for racial bias, and is no doubt constantly leveled at white rappers like Macklemore in particular.) It is the sound of Macklemore (aka Ben Haggerty) trying.