TOWN LOVE is an online art museum dedicated to celebrating the vibrant past and present of Northwest Hip-Hop. You can browse by artist or browse by year.

This gallery page is organized to highlight the creative work of

Artist: Macklemore

As you scroll, items are sorted from most recent to earliest.

A film about Northwest hip-hop from

The Language of My World

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Open Your Eyes

A young Ben “Macklemore” Haggerty launched his solo rap career in 2001 with this debut album, Open Your Eyes. Setting aside the “Intro,” and the three “Interludes,” we are looking at fourteen tracks here. “Welcome To The Culture” starts things off, calling out fake MCs over a slick, groovy beat. “Look in the mirror and honestly tell yourself that you are keeping it real,” he chides. The brilliant “Wake Up” is a first look at the winning tone that would eventually become the Macklemore brand–a comedic, quick-witted entertainer telling concise stories with clear social messages. The sample in the chorus of “Wake Up” cleverly flips the line, “Use your mentality, wake up to reality,” from Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition of “Under My Skin.”

“Her Name Was Music,” shows Mack’s innocent earnestness and lack of inhibition baring his soul on the microphone. The track’s lyrics fall closer to to a high school romantic poetry assignment than rap verses, and before the end of the track, the music-as-woman metaphor feels strained. “Her Name Was Music” may have been inspired by Ghetto Chilldren’s “Equilibrium,” which has lines like, “Since my youth I’ve been in cahoots with this friend of mine, I’m in her mind, kick back with her, she soothes like Calamine.”

“Flossin” showcases the contradictions of Macklemore’s entire career. Why would a conscious MC want to floss? “Don’t take life so serious, get that neck knocking,” says the MC with the most deep, ponderous thoughts per bar. How can we “get this party hopping” with grim meditations on the true colonial origins of America’s Thanksgiving myth found elsewhere on the album? The lyrics of “Flossin” show Macklemore realizing in real time how hard it is to strike a balance between intellectual raps with a purpose, and catchy, lightweight ditties.

To me, solipsistic tracks like “Fresh Coast,” and “Earthlings,” resemble an Only Fans, no privacy look into Mack’s personal life and academic musings. SNL once called Common “a TED Talk with a beat,” for Macklemore just replace “TED Talk” with “CRT 101.” Is the confessional, self-diagnosing therapist version of Macklemore less compelling than the humorous-yet-poignant storyteller? Would there be “party” Macklemore without “political rally” Macklemore? The fact that he was able to bring both of these components of his personality along for the ride speaks to Mack’s integrity and his refusal to abandon the honest, truth-to-power style that brought him to the rap game in the first place.

Around the release of Open Your Eyes, opportunities opened up right and left for Macklemore. His hip-hop group Elevated Elements dropped their CD titled Progress, with interesting tracks such as “Sympathy,” “Truth Is Gravity,” and “Perspectives.” Also, Gabriel Teodros’ 2001 album Sun To A Recycled Soul featured Mack’s vocal and production work on three songs, including the deceptively mild-sounding “F*** The Industry.” It was an auspicious start to a career that would take Haggerty many times around the world. Written by Novocaine132

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The VS. REDUX

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The Vs. EP

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The Vs. EP was created in and features appearances from:

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The Heist

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about success. We’re all clamoring and hustling for success in our own ways. Do you follow Macklemore online? That dude works every single day. He’s always in the home studio or on tour. Every day. On “Ten Thousand Hours” he raps, “The Greats were great because they paint a lot,” and you see this with Ben. So when was the last time you listened to The Heist all the way through? I’ve been listening to it a lot lately and there’s such a clear concept from start to finish. It’s not just a collection of random hits: You can see a summer day, walking our green streets, past the big, luxurious northern Capitol Hill homes up to Volunteer Park. You know all these songs, all those songs that played on the radio all summer in 2012 and into the next. There’s so much Seattle on display here. I met Mr. “Thrift Shop” Wanz at a party a few years back and, and I was celebrity struck talking with him. Many of the themes on The Heist have only grown in relevance in 2017, in an America where our president says it’s okay to hate and discriminate. Somewhere between the gentle piano that opens “Same Love” and the chorus of angels that ends it, Macklemore raps, “No law’s gonna change us,” which succinctly summarizes the current mood of defiant Seattle. Don’t be jealous of Macklemore’s money or fame. Be jealous of his impressive flow, his honesty on display, the chart-topping arrangements from Ryan Lewis, and the fact that they did it all themselves on their own terms. No labels. It’s all self-produced and self-released like 90% of the other records I review here. “A life lived for art is never a life wasted.” Pictured here is the 5lb, double vinyl, gator-skin, 18-insert, bonus tracks, box set. It’s a big audacious statement in an age when most are releasing virtual music for free on SoundCloud. Lots of my fav local cats were involved with this record: Nathan Quiroga, Eighty4 Fly, Budo, Hollis Wong-Wear… And then you think, “Damn, this DIY record from Seattle won a Grammy!” What does success mean to you if not this?

The Heist was created in and features appearances from:

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Gemini

Gemini is Macklemore’s self-released celebration of our town: Because of their features on this record, local talents Dave B and Travis Thompson were on The Tonight Show singing “Corner Store,” and representing our hip-hop community on national television.

But let’s start here: I’m headbanging in my car. It’s 1:00 am and “Firebreather” roars. It’s no surprise there’s a car on the cover. This is car music. You turn up the dial and you keep wanting to turn it up.

Macklemore’s devout honesty is found throughout Gemini, leaving you with the feeling that you need to reduce the hypocrisies in your fraudulent life. Despite our desire to make work and be artists, “waking up to a screen and watching TV, it’s easy.” On “Intentions” he begins, “I want to be sober, but I love getting high.” Rather than pursue our own dreams, we choose to “live on social media and read other people’s thoughts.”

Recorded at home, in the basement, the music is intimate. Every song is so thoroughly considered and contains the sort of details it takes dozens of listens to notice, both in the music and the storytelling. In lieu of usual producer Ryan Lewis, there are talented local and mainstream collaborators galore here: Budo, Tyler Dopps, Xperience, Saint Claire, Dan Caplen, Abir, Donna Missal, Reignwolf, Otieno Terry, Ke$ha, Offset, Lil Yachty, Eric Nally, and Skylar Grey, whose hook on the second track is truly “Glorious.”

For everyone out there hoping to one day to have the worldwide stadium-level fame that Macklemore has achieved, may this record be your textbook for success.

Gemini was created in and features appearances from:

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This Unruly Mess I've Made

This Unruly Mess I’ve Made, from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis is defiantly uncool; celebrating hair metal, failed resolutions, books on tape, and herbal tea. Few records from 2016 are more eccentric and audacious. At a time when seeming cool holds such a premium, Unruly Mess walks in the opposite direction and consequently sounds like nothing else. It’s also the only local hip-hop record this year that made me cry. Regardless of mega-star status, this record is still grounded in Seattle’s DIY ethic: self-released and supported on tour by local talents Dave B, Budo, and others. I always laugh at the line, “Give me the Macklemore haircut!” because Ben and I have been the same Capitol Hill barber. How smalltown Seattle is that?

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