Does Rock ‘N’ Roll Kill Braincells?! – Macklemore

“If I don’t know the answer, can I make it up? I feel like they called me Larry? I have no clue!”

WRONG. You appeared as ‘Mucklemore’.

“Oh Mucklemore! Everyone was excited about me doing Sesame Street, and then they put me in a trash can and a jacket that smelled of old Muppets from the Jim Henson set 30 years ago! It was a fun day. I remember meeting Mr. Snuffleupagus, Oscar and the Count – the Count was crazy! – and it was cool to see the impressive puppeteering that goes on and their entire world. It’s a huge bloc. Most TV sets like The Price is Right look smaller in real life, but Sesame Street’s got a lot of square footage. They’ve got a whole town in that motherfucker!”

“Probably the Eagles? Or Paul McCartney or Shaggy?”

WRONG. He said he thought an Australian band like Savage Garden should have performed… ironic considering their frontman Darren Hayes is married to Richard Cullen, and no fan of Abbott.

“Damn! That’s tough when the former Prime Minister of Australia calls you out… no it’s not, he looked ridiculous and it was a win for love in front of a lot of Australia and one of my proudest moments as an artist of the last decade. Love prevailed in that situation. Sure, there was a conversation around it and pushback, but that’s what art is supposed to do. Art is a weapon of resistance. ’Same Love’ still feels powerful today. What I’m able to see first-hand is people in the front row with tears in their eyes singing a song you can tell has had an impact on who they are or got them through a certain point.”

“I’m going to go for 756?”

WRONG. 1133. Ever speak to Kendrick about it? 

“Damn! What a number! Kendrick and I have never really talked in-depth about it after that. I mean, I’ve spoken to him, but at that moment, it was a really intense time for me. Before fame, I had about 15 years of being an underground rapper and when I became known to the world, it happened very quickly to the point where ‘Thrift Shop’ and ‘Can’t Hold Us’ became the biggest songs in the world. It opens you up to a level of criticism that I didn’t know how to take at the time. Then you tie in active addiction to try to escape the criticism and what do you get? You get someone who’s lost, fearful, and has forgotten the core vales that got them to that stage in the first place. And I had to be reminded.”

“That moment was an imperative one in my journey and I would never take it back because it led me back to my truth – of being able to strip back everything to who I am, not who the world, comments or thinkpieces say I am. None of that matters – keep making art and don’t let these motherfuckers get in your head.”

Did any peers reach out to you during the Grammys controversy where you won four awards?

“The only person who reached out to me in that moment was Mac Miller. And he didn’t have to. That’s always impressed me because rappers are all competitive people with big egos. There’s also the thing about being the lone white rapper – first it was Eminem, then Mac Miller, then me. I had conversations with Mac about feeling like I want to be the chosen white person! This crazy insanity of ‘I want to be the most popular white rapper of the moment!’. It’s so corny, but I’ve had conversations with MGK and G-Eazy and everyone feels that sense of competition – we all compare ourselves to each other, whether we talk about it or not!”

“And Mac was the most popular, successful rapper since Eminem and then along comes [Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ 2012 debut] ‘The Heist’. Instead of feeling threatened, Mac reached out in that moment where I’ve just won four Grammys and I’m on the biggest stage in the world performing ‘Same Love’ to text and say: ‘Dude, I know that you’re probably going through a lot right now. I just want to tell you that I’m thinking about you and sending love. And I know this shit’s not easy.’ That’s always stuck with me.”

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“The one, the only, the great Justin Bieber!”

CORRECT.  In 2017, you joked that the bizarre painting you own of Justin Bieber with maple syrup pouring down his chest onto a pancake balanced on his erect penis, hangs above your bed and “whenever I’m with my wife intimately, I can always stare at it if I want to control my orgasm. Just slow it down.” Have you had a chance to speak to Justin about your artwork?

“Yeah, I did actually tell him the whole story! It probably weirded him out! I don’t know if he fully got it, but it was important for me to let him know! We were both laughing. I said that on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen trying to be witty and funny, and I’m a weird dude and my brain goes to strange places! They brought up the picture and I said it obviously as a joke, but immediately it was gospel that this is how I’m controlling my orgasms by looking at this Justin Bieber picture on my wall – which has never been on my wall. The whole thing was a reminder that sometimes it’s better to just shut the hell up! [Laughs]”

“A vampire? Is that an animal? Nah, that’s more a ….lost soul. I wanna say koala but it’s gonna be wrong!”

WRONG. Fish.

“Now I know! I watched it not knowing that my song was in it and when ‘Downtown’ suddenly popped up, it was a great moment.”

For a bonus half-point: which pop megastar claimed she was “in tears of laughter’ watching the video to ‘Downtown’?

“Adele?”

CORRECT.

“Whooo-hoo! I just remember Adele liking ‘Downtown’.”

Who’s been the most unexpected fan of your music?

“Answering honestly, meeting Kanye was unexpected. I had looked up to him and studied his entire playbook for 15 years prior. He had a big impact on me so it was a big deal for me to have a conversation with him and hear he likes the Gator Skin [The Heist Deluxe Box Set] album cover and having him praising certain songs or bars. I put him on a different pedestal in terms of what he meant, so it was a surreal moment that he was familiar with my work and that he would want to make art with me.”

Do you think he’s changed?

“Yep. But I’m not going to talk about Kanye.”

 1:

‘Damn, Kidz Bop upgraded’

‘This is what I would do if my parents were rich lol’

‘minimore ft lil lil yachty’

“That would be ‘Marmalade’.”

CORRECT.

“That video was a lot of fun – to watch the kids do the rap shots instead of me, the vibes were high, Lil Yachty is the homie – love that guy!”

 2:

 ‘Fact: This song is older than most fortnite players’

‘Maklemore: looking like he ready for game of thrones, winters coming, he pulling it off too’

“Is that ‘Can’t Hold Us’?”

CORRECT.

“Niiiice! That was maybe my most ambitious video. We filmed on four continents. It was insanity. We kept shooting as we toured around the world. It’s our ‘Thriller’  – there’s a camel, a CPlane, and a pirate ship and skydiving – I land on [Seattle’s] Space Needle. What more could you want from a music video?! It takes you there!”

3:

‘I miss professor macklemore….oooo my bad no one knows him by that guess u would have to be in the way old school to know what I am talking about but this jam reminds me of those days ….I love it up lifting and fun around every beat’

‘im going to japan in a month, im telling everyone im macklemores cousin. they best respect.’

“’Brad Pitt’s Cousin’?”

CORRECT.

“Three for three! I have no idea if Brad Pitt has heard the namecheck!”

ONE FULL POINT OVERALL.

“30?”

CORRECT-ISH. Close enough – it was 33. Queen Latifah officiated the ceremony and Madonna sang ‘Open Your Heart’, before duetting ‘Same Love’ with you and Mary Lambert.

“Madonna was all about her business – she’s a hard-worker, funny and sarcastic, and Queen Latifah has a great energy and vibe. I can’t emphasise how surreal that stage was and having a moment of literally watching people married, and performing to Jay-Z and Beyoncé who are in the front row of the Grammys – which I’ve just won four of. I’m a kid from Seattle who most of the world didn’t know existed a year prior, and I couldn’t believe Jay-Z and Beyoncé were staring at me!”

“No idea!”

WRONG. It’s ‘GRIME’.

“Damn! I’ve had these songs for years now so the sequential order of the album is something that is completely new to me and I will probably never fully get!”

Tell us about ‘BEN’…

“I always had the title in my head; maybe because it’s my name. I’ve kind of wanted to change Macklemore to Ben – it feels like a return to who I truly am. The goal with the creation of an album is to get closer to the core, the centre, the heart, and the only way we can do that is if I actively strip away the façade of any public-facing version of myself – that needs to die in the studio in order for my light to grow. This album is special. After everything that’s happened in the past four years, I don’t take it for granted that I put out art, like I had started to do in the past.”

“I have no idea – but I know what you’re talking about!”

WRONG. Food stamps.

“Hmmmmn – seems a little economically insensitive!”

“Red?”

WRONG. Close – pink.

“That was a big deal to talk about the opioid crisis with the President and to share that platform around an issue that is killing us at catastrophic proportions. We’re still in the middle of a nationwide crisis with Fentanyl and it’s not going away. But on the positive [side], to be able to lessen the stigma of the disease of addiction and to bring recovery to light was crazy and beautiful – the fact he was willing to have that conversation is a true testament to who Barak Obama is a human and was during his presidency.”

Did you speak to him about music?

“Yeah, he said I was on his iPod and we talked a bit about music. I do think those [play]lists are made by one of his daughters though and that Obama probably ain’t slapping most of that! But you never know!”

The verdict: 3.5/10

“That sounds about right!”

Macklemore’s new album ‘BEN’ is released on March 3