He may only have $20 in his pocket, but when you have a Rolling Stone cover, you don’t need much else.
Macklemore’s road from Seattle to becoming one of the most celebrated independent rappers in the game has been riddled with highs and lows, as the man also known as Ben Haggerty battled with drug and alcohol addiction.
While some would think the pinnacles of fame would mean a troubled past left behind, in the latest issue of Rolling Stone, Macklemore makes it clear that being trivialized as “the ‘Thrift Shop’ guy” almost put his sobriety at risk.
Check out some excerpts from the interview teaser below.
On being known as the “Thrift Shop” guy:
I went through a place of not being happy, getting put in a box of ‘This is a novelty rap song,’ and being like, ‘What did I sign up for?’
But the success of the pro-gay-rights track “Same Love” helped him relax:
“The legacy that I’m leaving on the world is more than just a song about second-hand clothes,” he says.
On being noticed by others:
“I think on the mainstream level, nobody knows what the f*** I am. Am I the DJ? Do I make the beats? Do I rap? Am I singing on tracks? I don’t think a lot of people know except real fans who have been around.”
Meanwhile, the other half of the duo, Ryan Lewis, unabashedly expressed how he feels about playing the background to Macklemore’s growing fame as the “lesser known” part of the duo, and we have to respect his honesty. Ryan told the magazine:
“I think on the mainstream level, nobody knows what the fuck I am. Am I the DJ? Do I make the beats? Do I rap? Am I singing on tracks? I don’t think a lot of people know except real fans who have been around. I mean, you guys, Rolling Stone, don’t want to put me on the cover. It’s like, you’re going to sell more copies with Ben’s face. Why is that? Because the general public, based on the way this whole thing’s been marketed . . . are going to be more receptive to ‘Macklemore.’ The public don’t care how the song came together. And I can’t change that. So if I have jealousy, deriving from that, then that’s just stupid.”
Be sure to head over to Rolling Stone for more.
