GAY RAP ANTHEM MOVES UP BILLBOARD CHART

US rappers Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s powerful song Same Love, which promotes gay equality and tolerance, continues to move up the Billboard singles chart.

Dubbed a “gay equality anthem”, the track’s success appears to have been boosted by last week’s Supreme Court victories affirming same-sex marriage in the US.

The song, which features openly lesbian vocalist Mary Lambert singing the chorus, has now reached number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and is expected to continue to climb.

According to Billboard, Same Love was written in support of Macklemore’s two gay uncles and gay godfather and is also about how Macklemore himself thought he might be gay when he was younger.

The song features lyrics such as “America the brave still fears what we don’t know; And God loves all his children, is somehow forgotten; But we paraphrase a book written thirty-five-hundred years ago.”

The song, included on the album The Heist, is also groundbreaking in that the Hip Hop genre has traditionally been seen as a homophobic and macho one.

Other lyrics include: “If I was gay, I would think Hip-Hop hates me; Have you read the YouTube comments lately?; ‘Man, that’s gay’ gets dropped on the daily; We become so numb to what we’re saying; A culture founded from oppression; Yet we don’t have acceptance for ’em.”

“When (Macklemore) and Ryan approached me with Same Love, I knew it was revolutionary,” Lambert told Billboard.

“I get to sing a song about gay rights and how much I love my girlfriend – and 15-year-old boys are singing the song at the top of their lungs at our shows. I think we’re changing the world. Maybe it’s egotistical to say that, but music has done that before.”

The moving video shows a gay man’s journey from an alienated teen to his same-sex relationship and has been viewed almost 54 million times on YouTube.

Watch the Same Love video below.