Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
“Hey Macklemore, can we go thrift shopping?”
“What? What? What? What?”
The infamous song “Thrift Shop” is sung by 35-year-old rapper Macklemore, who rose to fame with his collaboration with Ryan Lewis in their debut album, The Heist. With more than 6 million downloads with “Thrift Shop” and rising to No. 1 on the Hot 100 Chart with “Can’t Hold Us,” they became the first duo in music history to have first two singles reach the top of the pop charts. With their successes at a high, they went on to receive four Grammy’s in 2014.
“Same Love” was song that was inspired by a news article in 2012 about a teenager who committed suicide after being bullied. After reading about it, Macklemore wrote this song to embrace and promote gay marriage, which many raps song did not. Macklemore expressed how he believed the epithets routinely heard in rap music were partly to blame, and that denying gay adults the right to be married contributed to negative effects on gay teenagers. He “just wanted to hold myself accountable and hold hip-hop accountable and bring up an issue that was being pushed under the rug.”
The song quickly made it all the way to the Top 40 and No. 5 on the Rap Songs Chart. The timing of everything was impeccable, as it hit the charts in February, when the Supreme Court was considering challenges to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and to California’s ban on same-sex marriage.
The lyrics of “Same Love” accuse rappers for constantly using “gay slurs” and abusive language. When we hear rap music today, it mainly consists of having a “sick beat” with rhythmic speech over the music. Although it is very groovy and fun to jam to, what most people don’t realize is how often abusive language is used. It seems that rappers will throw around profanity and offensive language like it’s no big deal. But, just because we hear it all the time doesn’t mean it’s okay, right? That’s the point that Macklemore is trying to express in his lyrics:
If I was gay I would think hip-hop hates me
https://www.wordsinthebucket.com/same-love
Have you read the Youtube comments lately
“Man that’s gay” Gets dropped on the daily
We’ve become so numb to what we’re sayin’
Our culture founded from oppression
Yeah, we don’t have acceptance for ’em
Call each other faggots behind the keys of a message board
A word routed in hate, yet our genre still ignores it
Gay is synonymous with the lesser
It’s the same hate that’s caused wars from religion
Gender to skin color the complexion of your pigment
Many artists turned down the opportunity to sing this song with Macklemore. With such a controversial topic, no one really wanted to be associated with it. After all, stars and celebrities lose fans all the time when they express an unpopular or polarizing opinion.
They soon found singer Mary Lambert, who agreed to sing alongside. Lambert described singing the song as a “divine moment,” as she had had a very difficult childhood coming out as gay in church.
The Same Love music video depicts the journey of a gay man’s life; from battling a difficult childhood of staying in the closet, to his well-deserved wedding day, and to the inevitable end.
Macklemore originally wanted the video to be seen through the perspective of a gay, bullied child; however, he believed that he couldn’t do it because it wasn’t his story to tell. However, he was able to turn a nostalgic piano ballad into a powerful message about marriage equality.
This sparked controversy as this song focused on same-sex marriage, but was written by a white, straight man. In the rap community, there are fewer white rappers that achieve success. Since its roots stem from African-American communities, “the American public has long associated [it] with a particular demographic.” With that being said, Macklemore clearly does not “fit in” with the stereotypical image of rap. During the 2014 Grammy’s, he performed the song with Madonna, as a score of couples (both straight and gay) were married onstage. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis certainly took a risk that night as a duo, as it showed the audience and everyone around the world that they were using their new-found fame to push a progressive message. He once said, “You’re gonna piss people off, but all these moments add up to an understanding and, hopefully, change.”
I loved that you picked this song. I think it’s so important that people read this article because teen suicide due to bullying is such an important topic in today’s society and is considered a “silent killer.” Macklemore’s song “same love” is such a good song to use for this blogpost because I agree with the fact that he is standing for change. As you depicted, “progress is impossible without change” and in my opinion, Macklemore’s song “same love” is an outcry to society to notice what is going on around them and make a change, and most importantly for the lives that were lost because of negligence. I found it very important that you included the video because seeing the life of a gay man from being a child to marrying his partner we get to see all the hate that he goes through and how it affects him emotionally. Unfortunately, bullying (silent killer) takes so many lives because of the lack of awareness. We should all take time to acknowledge hate and not ignore it because we are scared of confrontation.
-Jarrett