Not my words but a sentiment expressed by Seattle's new rap phenom, Macklemore. I am sure many have written him off already, he is white for a start never a good thing for 'true' hip hop fans. Secondly he has had commercial success with songs like 'Thrift Shop' which may cause some to see he as a pop start sell out. Far from this Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have followed in the steps of Tech N9ne and Krizz Kaliko and put out a hugely successful album on an independent label.
Firstly I love independent stuff; food, bars, restaurants, drinks, clothing, anything that gives the massive corporations a run for their money is a good thing in my eyes. I also love hip hop and don't really care what colour the artist is or where he/she is from so long as they put out good music. 'The Heist' is a great album, you could say it is self indulgence that he has put out purely to deal with his own demons and to promote his recovery. You could say that. Or you could see that this subject matter is already a whole lot deeper than a lot of 'mainstream' rap that you will hear. On top of that Ryan Lewis has done a great job in producing a wide range of tracks from catchy pop hooks to quite dramatic instrumentals and chilled out mellow beats. Macklemore rapping about his relapse from sobriety is no different than a certain Mr Mathers who gave us three albums worth of substance abuse (Encore high, Relapse flushing them out, Recovery as it says it the tin!). However, there is more to it than this. People will write off 'Same Love' but the message is amazingly positive and 'Wings' is a fantastic ode to the perils of consumerism, Macklemore commented via his own blog on the song:
"The song “Wings” is about the pursuit of identity through the means of consumerism. The attempt is to dissect our infatuation and attachment to logos, labels, brands and the fleeting happiness that is intrinsically linked to the almighty power of the purchase."
This brings us onto the track 'Jimmy Iovine' (from which I stole the title of this post) a story of Macklemore's desperation to get signed before realising the truth behind it.
"Now I'm sorry, I've had along day, remond me now what your name is?
That's right, Macklemore, of course... today has been crazy
Anyway, you ready? We'll give you a $100,000
After your album comes out, we'll need back that money you borrowed"
"So it's really like a loan?"
"A loan, Come on, no. We're a team 360 degrees, we will reach your goals!
We'll get a third of the merch that you sell out on the road.
Along with a third of the money you make when you're doing shows,
Manager gets twenty, booking agent gets ten,
So shit, after taxesm you and Ryan have 7% to split.
That's not bad, I've seen a lot worse.
No one will give you a better offer than us."
Don't overlook these guys just because 'Thrift Shop' blew up on You Tube with the kiddies, there's a lot more to it than that (and even that song has to be given credit, not just a highly catchy hook but a great line about R Kelly's bedsheets).
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