Macklemore Confirms New Album For 2015
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis only appeared on one song in 2014: “Arrows,” by indie rock band Fences. After their 2012 debut The Heist won Best Rap Album at the 56th Grammy Awards last year, famously beating out Kendrick Lamar‘s good kid, m.A.A.d. city, they stepped away from the spotlight. “We vanished purposefully,” Macklemore said on December 29 on Hot 97. “We vanished. Been in the studio. Disappeared.”
As he promised just days later, though, Macklemore is about to make his return. When a fan on Twitter complained about not hearing a new album in 2014, Macklemore said, “You will this year. Believe that.”
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis made their live TV debut in October 2012, on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. They performed “Same Love,” the same song that they would perform at the Grammys while Queen Latifah officiated a mass wedding of 33 couples. Their breakout success was huge — between “Can’t Hold Us” and “Thrift Shop,” they became the first duo to have their first two singles top the Hot 100.
However, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ growing recognition wasn’t without controversy. “The industry’s long been looking to find the white rapper they can hold near and dear to their hearts, ostensibly in an effort to extricate blackness from hip-hop, just as they did with rock music decades earlier,” Brandon Soderberg wrote at SPIN’s hip-hop blog, No Trivia.
Such criticism may be why, of all things, Macklemore gave his first interview in some time, just before the 57th Grammys — and it wasn’t to talk about his new music, but rather his white privilege in response to Azealia Banks‘ recent comments about Iggy Azalea. See his in-depth chat with Hot 97 below.
Get an eyeful of even more pop music coverage, from artist interviews to exclusive performances, on Idolator’s YouTube channel.
