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"Rapper Macklemore preached the virtues of tolerance and acceptance during a rowdy concert Wednesday night in New York City, where he decided not to dwell on the controversy surrounding his outfit choice during a performance in Seattle on Friday.\nThis week, headlines centered on uproar from people who thought Macklemore's wig, fake beard and fake nose were culturally insensitive toward Jewish people. But on Wednesday, the 30-year-old rapper kept the focus on the music and the empowering messages behind each song.\nSee also: Stunning Michael Jackson Hologram Performs at Billboard Music Awards\n\"We believe in love and equality for all people in the world, so now put your hand up like this,\" Macklemore screamed, forming a peace sign with two fingers during the same-sex anthem \"Same Love\" with Ryan Lewis.\nMacklemore, born Ben Haggerty, publicly apologized online on Monday.\n\"I\u2019ve always loved dressing up and have been doing so my entire career,\" he wrote on his blog. \"The character I dressed up as on Friday had no intended cultural identity or background. I wasn\u2019t attempting to mimic any culture, nor resemble one. A 'Jewish stereotype' never crossed my mind.\"\n\nA costumed Macklemore performs on May 16 in Seattle.Macklemore reiterated his love of costumes at Wednesday's show, telling fans a story about himself at 17, when he would buy \"weird outfits\" from thrift stores and walk the streets of New York City as \"Professor Macklemore.\" The anecdote fittingly introduced the duo's smash hit \"Thrift Shop.\"\nThe show, which was the first for the American Express Membership Experiences Concert Series, wouldn't be a Macklemore concert without a transformation into his British alter ego Raven Bowie for \"And We Danced.\" Raven Bowie debuted in 2011 in this sex-fueled video.\n\nSo at the end of the day, fans anticipating a Macklemore costume did indeed see one \u2014 just not the controversial one consuming the celebrity scandal mill.\nBONUS: Surprise! 12 Musicians Who Ignore Traditional Publicity\n\n\nSurprising Musician Promotions\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n1. Beyonc\u00E9\n\nYears from now, people will remember where they were when Beyonc\u00E9 dropped her surprise, self-titled album in December 2013. For two years, the pop artist was quiet on the album front, though she was still a major player in the industry (performing the Super Bowl halftime show, singing the National Anthem at the presidential inauguration, you get the drift).\nBut on Dec. 12, she surprised fans and uploaded a brand new album on iTunes, complete with 17 music videos. And it really, really worked.\n\n\nVideo: YouTube, Beyonce\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n2. Kid Cudi\n\nThe rapper (real name Scott Mescudi) has been on an experimental spree. After releasing two well-received albums, he spaced out, dropping material that ran far away from traditional hip-hop.\nOn Feb. 24, he surprised fans with Satellite Flight: The Journey to Mother Moon on iTunes, notifying audiences only two hours beforehand via Twitter. \n\n\nImage: Flickr, Laurence Barnes\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n3. Death Grips\n\nBefore Beyonc\u00E9 and Kid Cudi, there were Death Grips. The experimental horrorcore hip-hop trio released a surprise album in November 2013, titled Government Plates. It came with videos and was free to download. How's that for one-upmanship?\nNote: The lyrics in the video are NSFW.\n\n\nVideo: YouTube, Death Grips\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n4. Coldplay\nThe softcore rockers are one of the most popular acts in the world, so it doesn't take much publicity for them to be heard. Dropping their last album, Mylo Xyloto in 2011, the band surprisingly released a single on Feb. 25, titled \"Midnight.\" The track came without warning, and also ushered in an announcement of a new album.\n\nVideo: YouTube, ColdplayVEVO\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n5. Kanye West\n\nWhen it comes to rap, hardly any artist is more publicized than Kanye West. No matter what he's doing, he's constantly in the headlines, bragging about his talent like rap's Muhammad Ali.\nThat's why the radio silence around his sixth album Yeezus was so bizarrely out of character. The hype machine whirled so deafeningly, West only needed to make minimal moves, choosing to release the album without a cover, or a single, leaving radio stations scrambling to pick the best track. \n\n\nImage: Flickr, NRK P3\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n6. Vampire Weekend\n\nThere are two things Vampire Weekend don't care about: Oxford commas and album promotion. To announce their third album, Modern Vampires of the City, the band tweeted \"NYT Classifieds,\" signaling fans to grab a copy of The New York Times and peruse the Classifieds section.\nSure enough, a tiny announcement revealed the name and release date of the upcoming album. \n\n\nVideo: YouTube, VampireWeekendVEVO\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n7. The Weeknd\n\nWhen you're an up-and-coming artist, you work like a madman to get your name out there -- but not if you're the Weeknd. The R&amp;B singer (real name Abel Tesfaye), quietly dropped a few songs on YouTube, which quickly caught the ear of the music world and got a boost when rapper Drake tweeted about the song \"Wicked Games.\"\nThe publicity grew, but Tesfaye stayed silent (most fans didn't even know what he looked like), dropping three full mixtapes and not doing a single interview. He finally succumbed to a 2013 cover story with Complex, in order to promote his proper first album, Kiss Land.\n\n\nImage: Flickr, jyw104\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n8. Jay Z\nIn the midst of the Yeezus hype, Mr. Carter made a special announcement: On July 4, he would be dropping an album, called Magna Carta Holy Grail (which was viewed as a slightly attention-grabbing move). He also announced a new business deal with Samsung, so anyone with a phone from the company could download the album for free. In another odd promo move, Jay performed the song \"Picasso Baby\" for six hours with performance artist Marina Abramovi\u0107 at New York City's Pace Gallery. \n\nVideo: YouTube, Samsung Mobile USA\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n9. Garth Brooks (as \"Chris Gaines\")\n\nBy 1999, Garth Brooks' country music popularity was waning, so he tried something different -- an entirely new persona. He created an alter ego named Chris Gaines, a hard rocker with a fictional past (which included a car crash that left him in need of vast amounts of plastic surgery). Brooks was supposed to star in a movie called The Lamb as Gaines, but when it was scrapped, he carried on, releasing an album later that year called Greatest Hits, also known as Garth Brooks...In the Life of Chris Gaines. \nFor more promotion, he hosted Saturday Night Live but performed as Gaines. Though a few eyebrows were raised towards Brooks' sanity, the album spawned a hit song called \"Lost In You,\" which climbed to number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. \n\n\nVideo: YouTube, Chris Gaines\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n10. Radiohead\nThe forefathers of alt-rock were not interested in regular promotion by the time they finished their seventh studio album, 2007\u2019s In Rainbows. Thus, they decided to leak it themselves, making it available for download on their website. They also didn\u2019t put a price on it, allowing fans to pay whatever they wanted for the album. \n\nVideo: YouTube, radiohead\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n11. Four Tet\nElectronic artist Four Tet (real name Kieran Hebden) isn't mainstream, but he has a massive underground following. When it came time to release his album Beautiful Rewind in 2013, he announced it just two weeks beforehand, with a cheeky tweet: \"no pre order, no youtube trailers, no itunes stream, no spotify, no amazon deal, no charts, no bit coin deal, no last minute rick rubin.\" (The Rubin joke was a reference to last minute producing on Kanye West's Yeezus).\n\nVideo: YouTube, Arrepio Sonoro\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n12. Prince\nWhen it's time to release your 32nd studio album, how do you keep things fresh? Such was Prince's conundrum in 2007, for Planet Earth. His solution? Releasing a free physical copy of the album in an edition of The Mail on Sunday, a British newspaper. \n\nImage: Flickr, Peter Tea\n\n\n\n\n\n\nHave something to add to this story? Share it in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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