Although Macklemore has been making waves in the pool that is rap, he isn't getting caught up in any major label deals as of yet. Macklemore's independently released album with Ryan Lewis, The Heist, managed to debut at #2 on the charts. Quite a feat for a rapper who did not have much radio play prior to that time. Now Macklemore is getting his due props, from various outlets and the major labels have come calling, but he's been turning them down.
Macklemore woke up early and spoke to The Breakfast Club on Power 105 and spoke on his background, and what he did before he got a big break in the rap game, as well as his album The Heist. It turns out, before being known as Seattle rapper, Macklemore was working with troubled youth. "I was working with incarcerated youth. It was a dope job, I was in college. I would bring in beats and do writing workshops with the youths." He continued,"From there I ended up as a security guard in the jail. I definitely broke up fights, I was in the intensive management unit, which is like the Hole essentially. " The Breakfast Club pondered why Rick Ross has always caught flack for being a former security guard, while Macklemore hasn't. Macklemore says it's 'cause he's never tried lying about it: "I just kept it 100."
Macklemore also touched on his former substance abuse problem, and no longer touching rapper's favorites: weed and syrup. "For me it was mostly an uncontrollable weed habit and alcohol.And then I got caught up in, you know, a little pills here and there, syrup. But I never had moderation with anything." Although weed, alcohol, pills and syrup are usually a part of the average rapper's daily diet, Macklemore recognized that the substances did not do him any benefits. "I could never be creative when I was messed up."
As well, Macklemore is often labeled as a "conscious rapper." However, this is not a title he embraces or encourages. "I just think it's corny. Am I more or less conscious than everybody else? I'm a full spectrum of a human being, there's songs that are like deep and personal and might bring up some social issues, but that's not the full side of me. I think it's just a box, that's just corny. It's very outdated. It's very underground and backpacker-ish and that's not the music I make."
Finally, one of the songs which made the rounds on the 'net was Macklemore & Ryan Lewis' "Jimmy Iovine." Dedicated to the head of Interscope, the track caught Jimmy Iovine's attention. This all happened, Macklemore reveals, thanks to talk show host Ellen Degeneres. "Well I think that Jimmy Iovine heard about the song, very quickly, like the day the album came out. But, Ellen [Degeneres]. We were on the show, and she was real cool, and after the show she was like, 'I know you got a record called Jimmy Iovine, I'm good friends with him, I'm gunna play it for him.' And she called... and she was like 'I played it for Jimmy, he loves it, he thinks it genius he wants to be in the video.'"
Watch Macklemore's interview with The Breakfast Club below.
