10
Thursday, June 10, 2021
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
STATEMENT
Macklemore and his contradictions: the unruly mess he
has made
In my middle-school world
of Little League softball and
sleepovers,
I
found
myself
listening to Macklemore’s (and
Ryan
Lewis’s)
discussion
of
addiction,
greed
and
failure
throughout the album “The Heist.”
Tuning out my parents’ car ride
conversations and team chatter on
the bus rides to basketball games,
I let my headphones become the
vessel into Macklemore’s much
darker musings about critical
issues I had not yet realized or
experienced.
No one in my social circle was
openly gay until I got to high school,
but “Same Love” introduced me to
and harnessed my empathy and
support for same-sex marriage,
an issue I had no connection
to at the time. I learned what
“lean” meant after listening to
“Otherside” and googling the abuse
of cough syrup. Prior to hearing
“Thrift Shop,” Goodwill was only
a place to donate clothes, not to
buy them. Before I experienced
“Wing$,” I never contemplated
why I preferred Nike over Under
Armour. Human rights, substance
abuse and consumption contribute
to the central themes of the album.
At the time that I first encountered
“The Heist” as a relatively sheltered
middle schooler, I hadn’t devoted a
lot of time to thinking about those
things.
Nevertheless,
I
found
myself feeling a deep emotional
connection
to
Macklemore’s
philosophy of fighting for gay
rights and battling inner demons
throughout “The Heist”, a bizzare
connection I could not explain
with my middle-school mind.
Since
stumbling
upon
his
Grammy award-winning album, I
have become much more familiar
with Macklemore and his music,
from
the
nostalgic
tones
of
“Growing Up” and “Good Old Days”
to the more bizarre sentiments
of “Brad Pitt’s Cousin” and “How
to Play the Flute.” I have taken on
the shared philosophical weight of
“This Unruly Mess I’ve Made” and
observed his anecdotal reflections
on childhood and religion in
“Gemini”.
At the end of 2020, I found
Macklemore’s
first
full-length
album, “The Language of My
World,”
which
covers,
among
many other topics, his childhood
observations
of
socioeconomic
strata, his first experiences with
alcohol and illicit substances, and
the track “White Privilege” (which
would be followed by the better-
known “White Privilege II” on a
later album). The 2005 album’s
discussion of social issues still
present and exacerbated by the
pandemic made “The Language
of My World” seem like it could
have been penned in 2020. “The
Language of My World” fleshes out
Macklemore’s personal reflections
of growing up in a segregated
Seattle as a well-off white kid.
It
provides
compelling
social
commentaries, all of which seem
to be perplexingly embodied by
the track “Contradictions,” which
boasts the hook:
“Consumption, contradiction/
I’m conflicted with being a
hypocrite/
And through these songs you
can witness it/
The differences, I admit this
shit, because I’m just like you/
Walking a fine line between
saying and living it”
Since my initial middle-school
musings on Macklemore’s more
palatable (or at least, commercially
successful) tracks, I have been
able to identify the potential
contradictions of his career and
artistry.
After
all,
Macklemore
is
an
A-list
celebrity
critiquing
those who buy into and practice
conspicuous consumption in songs
like “Thrift Shop” and “Need to
Know.” Conscious consumption is
somewhat of an unusual position
to advocate for in popular music,
and bringing it up seems like an
admirable undertaking. However,
he romanticizes overbuying and
rocking used clothing without
a mention of gentrification in
“Thrift Shop.”
Considering the bigger picture,
Macklemore attacks conspicuous
consumption in his signature
song, exclaiming “Fifty dollars
for a T-shirt/ that’s just some
ignorant bitch/ I call that getting
swindled and pimped.” Explicitly
mentioning the entrapments of
buying Gucci, he cautions “Trying
to get girls from a brand?/ Then you
hella won’t.” By his own definition,
Macklemore’s been swindled by
the same systems and propaganda
he so famously preached against.
Instagram posts and interviews
reveal his adornment of Gucci
and expensive accessories like
Louis Vuitton duffle bags and
Rolex watches. Even if the Gucci
hats and shirts are fake, as he has
claimed, it is a blatant violation of
the ideology propagated in one of
his biggest hits.
Though
he
preaches
from
a
perspective
of
conscious
consumption in “Thrift Shop,”
he also admits numerous ways
in which he has failed this ideal,
including his being seduced by
his lifelong, very American dream
of buying a Cadillac in “White
Walls.”
Macklemore
describes
the sentiments attached to the
purchase: “I’m rollin’ in that same
whip that my granddad had/ Hello,
haters, damn y’all mad/ 30k on the
Caddy, now how backpack rap is
that?”
Taking a more contentious tone
towards our economic system,
Macklemore dedicates an entire
song, “Wing$,” to chronicling his
lifelong struggle between having
a love for sneakers and addressing
the relationship of such a passion
with conspicuous consumption,
socioeconomic
inequality
and shallowness. In the song,
Macklemore looks in the mirror,
challenging himself: “Will I stand
for change or stay in my box?/
These Nikes help me define me/
But I’m trying to take mine off.”
Macklemore concludes that he has
learned “For a hundred dollars
and some change/ Consumption is
in the veins/ And now I see it’s just
another pair of shoes.”
BY LEAH LESZCZYNSKI
Read more at michigandaily.com
Design by Erin Ruark