Macklemore is off Ed Sheeran's Loop Tour, and he's telling his own version of why.

The rapper took the stage on September 5th and delivered a pro-Palestine speech that he later posted online. It went viral by September 7th. A week after that, on September 14th, he was pulled from the tour entirely. He didn't stay quiet about it.

In a long statement posted to social media, Macklemore laid out what he says happened behind the scenes. According to his account, Sheeran told him that Patriots owner Robert Kraft called him directly. The two acts were booked to play Gillette Stadium, which Kraft owns, later this month. Macklemore says Sheeran told him Kraft then rallied other stadium owners into a collective ultimatum: keep Macklemore on the bill, lose the venues.

None of this comes from Kraft, Sheeran or the stadium owners themselves. It's Macklemore's telling, and it hasn't been independently confirmed.

Macklemore says Sheeran framed his objection around the words "Free Palestine" and the Palestinian flag being hurtful to people he'd spoken to, and that Sheeran wanted to hold his usual line of staying out of politics. Macklemore didn't buy the framing. "There is no neutral position between the oppressor and the oppressed," he wrote, adding that he'd been saying the same things on stages for close to three years and the trouble only started once he was sharing arenas with an artist of Sheeran's size.

He also pushed back on any suggestion that his speech amounted to antisemitism, calling that accusation a shield used to protect Israel from criticism rather than to protect Jewish people.

Macklemore was careful to frame himself as someone who lost work, not someone who lost anything close to what Palestinians are losing. "I am not a victim," he wrote, before pointing to the death toll among children in Gaza. He said he still considers Sheeran a friend of 13 years and hopes the door stays open between them, even as he stands by every word.

The fallout moved fast once his post went up. Ms. Rachel was among the voices online calling out Sheeran for not backing Macklemore. By September 15th, Beoga, the Irish band that's been part of Sheeran's own touring lineup, announced they were pulling out of the Loop Tour as well.

Sheeran hasn't put out a statement of his own addressing Macklemore's version of events, including the claims about Kraft and the stadium owners. Whether he does, and whether anyone at Gillette or the other venues named responds, is the next thing to watch as the tour rolls toward its remaining dates.