Songfacts®:

• Ben 'Macklemore' Haggerty is a white rapper, and there are several instances on The Heist where he references the color of his skin. For instance, on this song he raps: "Don't even tweet, R.I.P Trayvon Martin. Don't wanna be that white dude, million man marchin'." The lyric is a reference to the alleged murder of 17-year-old African American Trayvon Martin, whose killing received international coverage because of the delay in charging his mixed-race assailer, George Zimmerman. Macklemore is stating that there should be no obstacle to his offering condolences for such a horrid death. However, as he is white, some would view his doing so as "sucking up," and a form of racism.
  
  Speaking with The Independent, Macklemore said he was happy to tackle the issue of the color of his skin head on. "You know, I'm a white rapper. I'm gonna get compared to other people. It is who I am." He said regarding the comparisons with other white rappers like Eminem and Asher Roth. "We're human beings, we look at something or somebody and we compare them to what we know and how we can identify them with somebody else. We compare everything in society, so I would expect people to compare me. You know, I think there's times when it makes it harder to be a credible artist, but hopefully the music can speak for itself."