{"id":2614,"date":"2012-10-27T21:52:48","date_gmt":"2012-10-28T01:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arts.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=2614"},"modified":"2012-10-27T21:52:48","modified_gmt":"2012-10-28T01:52:48","slug":"hey-macklemore-can-we-go-thrift-shopping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2012\/10\/27\/hey-macklemore-can-we-go-thrift-shopping\/","title":{"rendered":"Hey Macklemore, Can We Go Thrift Shopping?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rockin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 cold ass honkies, releasin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 tear-jerking, heart-swelling videos and flat out killin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 it in every way possible, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have been headlining the music world across the globe in the past month. With the release of their debut album <em>The Heist<\/em> on October 9 and subsequent cross-country tour, the duo has exponentially grew in fame and following. Almost every show of the tour, including those happening in over two months from now is completely sold out. On the day of its release the album reached the number 1 spot on iTunes; this is one hell of a CD.<\/p>\n<p>The team took a number of steps to effectively reach this level of success. First of all, they have been working on this album for years and have had time to perfect it. Two of my favorite songs, (well, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all pretty much my favorite) \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wing$\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Hold Us\u00e2\u20ac\u009d have been out for years. As this is Maclkemore\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first album he was able to use two of his best songs to boost the record. Furthermore, he released the videos for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Thrift Shop\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Same Love\u00e2\u20ac\u009d weeks before October 9, which also helped increase excitement and awareness. The distinction between these two videos proves Macklemore\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cohesive and well-rounded skill set. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Thrift Shop\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is amazing because it is a big ball of fur coated fun, hilarity and entertainment, yet is still lyrically brilliant. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arguably his most impressive rapping on the entire album and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talking about 99 cent gator shoes and broken keyboards. Most importantly, it shows his crew\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s swag. Unlike many of his fellow celebrities, Macklemore maintains an incredibly down to earth mentality, proved in part by his style. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Same Love,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d however, is amazing in different ways. The quality of video remains on par with all of his previous releases, but adds an entirely new dimension of tenderness and sentimentality. The video follows the life of a gay man, from his birth to his death, including a full celebration of his marriage to another man. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Same Love\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a beautiful proponent of legalizing same-sex marriage and advocating for gay rights. Macklemore drops intelligible, sensible lines throughout the song, for instance, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153America the brave, still fear what we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know\/And God loves all his children it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s somehow forgotten\/ But we paraphrase a book written 3,500 hundred years ago.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He goes on to equate the fight for gay rights with the Civil Rights movement, saying until we are all equal there is no freedom.<\/p>\n<p>Each song on the album (except perhaps \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jimmy Lovine\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) is quality; this is an extremely deep record. Topics range from Macklemore\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very real struggle with drug addiction and relapse to his feelings of white privilege to, most frequently, his hometown of Seattle, Washington. Macklemore\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s affinity for Seattle is representative of his modest attitude and love of the general public. By looking at any of the group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, their blog.. anything) you can immediately tell the two musicians are not interested in fame, fortune or glamor. They believe they are making music for the benefit of their fans, not for the money or compensations. The team plays free concerts for those who couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy tickets to their main shows, they love meeting people on their tours and interacting with the public. This most likely is due to their pretty recent entrance into stardom; as Macklemore points out in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Victory Lap,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when he first partnered with Lewis they played shows for a total crowd of 8 people. While they have come a long way from those days (Macklemore can now launch himself a good 4 feet in the air into a sea of fans) they still remember how they started. Macklemore is quite literally glad to even be alive. It is this humility, this \u00e2\u20ac\u0153music for the sake of music\u00e2\u20ac\u009d attitude that separates the band from other Hip Hop artists. <em>The Heist<\/em> is one of the most impressive releases in the past year, both lyrically and in its production quality. It pairs intelligent, creative lyrics with beats that are simply enjoyable to listen to; no matter what type of music you prefer, I guarantee you can find a song on this album to play on repeat for the next few months. I for one haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t turned off the entire CD since it came out.<\/p>\n<p>(Find some tissues: http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rockin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 cold ass honkies, releasin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 tear-jerking, heart-swelling videos and flat out killin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 it in every way possible, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have been headlining the music world across the globe in the past month. With the release of their debut album The Heist on October 9 and subsequent cross-country tour, the duo has exponentially grew [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2615,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2614\/revisions\/2615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}