Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - "The Heist", 4/5 Stars
The Heist, an album by Macklemore (Ben Haggerty) and producer Ryan Lewis, is the first hip-hop style album I’ve enjoyed in a long time. The lyrics are affirmative, campaign against misogyny and homophobia, and generally return the genre to its roots of celebrating the common man, all while engaging in musical minimalist background instrumentation. This album was their first major release and a brief history of that effort can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNXWOl81mBE&list=UUXYRdIXDdeZIf816EWAr5zQ
The lyrics range from insisting that a “life lived for art is never a life wasted” in “Ten Thousand Hours.” Unlike those who try to make a name for themselves on shows like X Factor or American Idol and claim they just want to make music, he’s been out in the world actually doing it. He knows good and well that the system of American education has failed him and so many others, yet he is making his way in the world on his own terms. There’s a certain nobility in that, insisting in “Make the Money” that “a true artist won’t be satisfied.”
He celebrates the lifestyle that led him to where he is today in tracks like “Thrift Store.” While some might see this one as mocking the poor, anyone who has seen the music video knows it’s really about making the best of what you’ve got and maintaining your humanity, including the capacity for fun and charity, no matter the struggles life may present. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK8mJJJvaes Indeed, he cautions against the tendency to focus on material things and the dangers they represent for urban youth when some are murdered even for imitation brand name items in “Wing$.” He laments that “These Nikes help define me, but I’m trying to take mine off.”
In “Thin Line” and “White Walls” he points out the disparities between seemingly glamorous lifestyle portrayed in rap songs to the lived experience of rappers’ girlfriends and asks them whether or not it’s really worth it. He thus impugns the entire rap industry demanding better treatment, both physical and rhetorical, for women. His own past is acknowledged as somewhat neglectful, and he regrets that. This song is a call for a better future which rejects the culture of alcoholism and drug use while hypocritically insisting upon religious identification with “broken hymns” and “prayers … soaked in gin” as he calls the universalized bar a “Neon Cathedral” and rues his relapse in “Starting Over.”
His insistence on maintaining shared humanity shines through again in “Same Love” where he expresses support for marriage equality, a measure which recently won passage in Macklemore’s home state of Washington. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlVBg7_08n0 Macklemore admits he didn’t always think this way, that it was a process of requiring he reject teachings of his childhood church and of hip-hop culture as an adult. Possibly the most important line here is “I might not be the same / But that’s not important / No freedom ‘til we’re equal / Damn right I support it” as he expresses support for his uncle who has been in a loving, committed same sex relationship for years. The law is just one stage in an evolving society, “but it’s a damn good place to start.”
That underlying theme, shared humanity being more important than merely physical differences, shines throughout this album, even in tracks like “Cowboy” and “Castle” which are exercises in the delightfully absurd. Hip-hop, and popular music generally, could use more albums like this one. Though this effort has an overabundance of the melancholic and the wistful, it overall presents a full experience of humanity in a believable way so often absent from rap and hip-hop. The realism is what sells Macklemore’s message.
– J. Holder Bennett, KMA Music Historian
Tracklist:
1. Ten Thousand Hours (Feat. Lyndsey Starr)
2. Can't Hold Us (Feat. Ray Dalton)
3. Thrift Shop (Feat. Wanz)
4. Thin Line (Feat. Buffalo Madonna)
5. Same Love (Feat. Mary Lambert)
6. Make The Money
7. Neon Cathedral (Feat. Allen Stone)
8. BomBom (Feat. The Teaching)
9. White Walls (Feat. ScHoolboy Q, and Hollis)
10. Jimmy Lovine (Feat. Ab-Soul)
11. Wing$
12. A Wake (Feat. Evan Roman)
13. Gold (Feat. Eighty4 Fly)
14. Starting Over (Feat. Ben Bridwell)
15. Cowboy Boots
Deluxe Edition:
16. Castle
17. My Oh My
18. Victory Lap
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