Op.Ed.: Macklemore @ Toronto

Photography by Loni Schick @elle_aye

In Part 2 of our exclusive Macklemore coverage – read Part 1 here – RESPECT. online writer @petermarrack catches up with the Seattle emcee as he makes his rounds in Toronto…

Read the complete article after the jump.

Why does the Grinch hate Christmas? Some claim it’s because his shoes were too tight. Others believe his head wasn’t screwed on quite right. Ouch! I know what that feels like. Popular belief however informs us that his heart was simply two sizes too small. Hmm… these were just some of the ruminations my friend Sarah and I had debated before the Macklemore show in downtown Toronto this past weekend. “In the Jim Carrey movie the Grinch hates Christmas because he was made fun of as a kid,” argued Sarah, over jeers from the pool hall and an old Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young jam on the jukebox. “Okay,” I agreed, “But why the hell are the Whos so enthused about Christmas?” “Whatever do you mean?” inquired Sarah. “Well, there’s two extremes, right? The Whos absolutely adore Christmas, while the Grinch hates it with a passion. But where are the folk who don’t give a shit? I mean, where’s the middle-ground?” Sarah and I were both stumped by that one. We just sat there at the bar and sipped on our brews in silent reverie… that is, until we rolled up to The Mod Club at 8:45 pm, to the beat of Macklemore’s “Otherside” pumping out from the loudspeakers.

Seattle-born-wankster-turned-sober-philosopher, Macklemore, is the epitome of middle-ground hip-hop music. His live shows are patronized by 13-17 year olds, the high school gang… packed like sardines into a mosh pit before the stage, while parents, nonnies [what Rich Hil calls his grandmother], and square elder siblings mingle incongruently in an elevated lounge section common to most venues. Macklemore is by no means the next Slim Shady. He’s soft, and his music doesn’t tap into that hip-hop ethos which demands the music be an outlet for impoverished ghetto angst. However, that’s not to say Macklemore doesn’t knock the shit out of his performances, as he provides a painless gateway for young boys and girls to start dabbling into this crazy ish we dub ‘real hip-hop’. Just as high school prepares kids for the cerebral and emotional junket that is university, Macklemore prepares young G’s for a foreseeable journey into real hip-hop culture. Macklemore is neither the Grinch, nor is he one of the Whos, but he can sure as hell spit to you about the ups and down of both parties.

In Toronto, Macklemore bounded, sprung, and paraded through an energetic set of epic beat drops, lyrical exposés, crowd-assisted sing-alongs, and cinematic interludes, which climaxed during the dude’s most infamous cuts. “Otherside”, an obvious show-starter, served as a vehicle for the Shark Face Gang iconoclast to disassemble industry norms, as he vented about past drug use over a crisp drum pattern, and RHCP chord progression sampled by production mastermind, Ryan Lewis, who was behind the turntables. Records like “Wings”, “The Town”, and “Irish Celebration” had the mosh pit horking up new ‘crowd surf’ participants, some of whom ended up flexing their swag on-stage, only to be pushed back down into the jamboree by Macklemore himself. Only twice did I spot someone disrespecting the PG vibe by blowing O’s and that was during “And We Dance”, a psychedelic Ragstock affair that has Macklemore dressed up as Tony Iommi and dancing like Reed Rothchild. What Macklemore and his shows lack in original hip-hop stalwart, they surely make up for in rambunctiousness… similar to a 13 year old sugar fiend who’s snorted too many pixie sticks and now his nonnie wants him to blow off steam within the confines of a ‘controlled’ orgy.

That’s Macklemore for you. He satisfies everyone who attends his shows. He’s rowdy, hunk-ish, and passable enough on the mic to charm both boys and girls alike, fans and non-fans, while still appearing refined and suburban enough to appeal to the vigilance of suspicious parents. Macklemore is the bridge which connects faux pop rap – see Chris Brown’s “Ladies Love Me” featuring Justin Bieber as ‘Shawty Mane’ – to the world of ‘real hip-hop’, aka the Wu-Tang’s, Mobb Deep’s, M.O.P.’s, etc. Macklemore sits in the middle of two extremes, in that middle-ground left vacant by the extreme ruggedness of the Grinch, and the brusque decadence of the Whos. My only concern is that while every worthwhile movie demands both its villains and its heroes, Macklemore is neither. If Drake is our hero, and say, Tyler, the Creator, our villain, what does that make Macklemore? An extra?

Looking forward to seeing you perform in Toronto.

Nice, you’re coming out to the show?

Yeah, yeah, it’ll be sick.

Yeah, I’m excited to get out to Canada.

Have you been to Canada before?

Yeah, I’ve been to Canada many times.

Probably B.C., right?

Yeah, exactly, my girlfriend’s a dual citizen, so I get treated extra special up there.

What about Toronto? You been there before?

I haven’t been to Toronto. I have not. But I’ve heard great things and I’m excited.

Hopefully (obviously?) the border doesn’t give you any trouble like Lil Wayne?

Well, I’ve been turned back about four to five times in my life, so let’s hope tomorrow- or tonight- or I guess tomorrow. We’re going to drive through the night. So let’s hope that we get there with no problems.

Yeah, I’ll cross my fingers.

Thank you.

You have a very strong fan-base. High school kids love your music, and some of these kids don’t even know who Rick Ross is. How do you attract these kids?

[laughs] Our fan-base is amazing, and I think people get hip to it- I think that any kid who is in high school, they’re very passionate about the music that they enjoy. Our demographic of kids is probably around 14, 15, 16 to like mid 30’s or something like that. We have some older folks as well. I think that when someone is relaying a message that you connect with, and that you can really live through, that music becomes something more powerful than another song or something you might hear on the radio. These kids definitely resonate with the music and find some deeper meaning in it, I believe.

Yeah, I agree. How would you describe these kids then? Who are they?

It’s tough to really narrow it down. I think we’ve been noticing throughout these shows is that our fan-base is extremely passionate, they’re extremely hype, they’re very high-energy shows. It’s a very personal connection. I like to think we have a personal connection with our fans. We want to know our fans, and do things like going to the merch table after the show and signing stuff, or doing interactive things so we can create art together, whatever it might be. I think that’s important in 2011, to really initiate that contact with your fan-base.

And now that you’re working a longer project, an LP, is there any pressure to come up with material or inspiration? Doing the mixtapes you probably exhaust a lot of material.

Yeah, it’s definitely difficult to think up new concepts. There’s a pressure, but I think this pressure comes more from myself, being creative and wanting to hit new subject matter.

How do you find that material? Do you ever have to go seek it out, like consciously?

Yeah, just doing different things in life, like not having a formula throughout the day, writing as much as possible, being a service to other people and getting outside your own little bubble, that’s what is conducive to me, so that my records don’t all sound the same.

Switching topics, you have a Rick Ross chain you bought in New York City. You ever consider copping a chain, make it official, or are your hip-hop roots more modest?

I got gold chains. I don’t have a chain with my logo on it or anything like that. I probably won’t do that. But I do like jewelry. I like to keep it fresh but I don’t need a picture of my own face on a chain anytime soon.

[laughs] Have there been any moments when you’ve doubted your place in hip-hop? Because I know, personally, I go to Wu-Tang shows and I feel detached from the culture somewhat. Obviously we’re neither black, nor impoverished.

I can only really speak for myself, because a place is just where people put you, in terms of their perspective. I’m a little bit outside of the norm in terms of my perspective and the way I tackle records. I think the fan-base is indicative of that. Any other box or label people want to put on me is great, you know, people are going to perceive you however they want to perceive you. For me, I’m somebody who grew up on hip-hop music, ever since I was a young kid. I acknowledge my privilege, I acknowledge my race, I acknowledge my roots aren’t where hip-hop culture started. But overall I just want to make great music. I want to make music that is genuine, that is true to my own experiences. When you do that you’re respected by your peers, you’re respected by other people in the industry. I’ve been lucky to share the stage with a lot of great people, and I’ve gotten respect from people I grew up listening to. That’s very validating, and it was great, but at the same time it’s all about me and my own connection to the music. As long as that’s authentic, I’m going to be fine.

Yeah, you can feel the authenticity. Given your history of substance use, do you ever catch anyone smoking at your shows, like would you frown upon that? I’m sure kids believe it to be disrespectful.

Yeah, people do. It’s weird, like the other night in New York. It’s funny, it always happens during “Otherside”, which is a song about drugs. It’s not offensive to me. It’s a little weird, particularly during “Otherside”. I don’t have a problem with it. It’s completely up to them. I used to smoke at concerts all the time. If people want to smoke let them smoke.

Right. For good or ill, hip hop does have its roots in weed and alcohol, like the RZA said all he needs to make a new Wu-Tang album is a truckload of weed. Do you ever feel at odds with the community because of the association, or tempted, or does it feel liberating?

Personally, I definitely feel liberated. I don’t ever really feel tempted too much. It may hit me every once and a while, but not in a show environment or anything like that. Weed and alcohol are social things, so a lot of times people end up over kicking it and doing drugs and alcohol. You look at a lot of my peers in the industry. They’re at a concert or whatever and you see them smoking in the back, drinking in the back, and going off to the bar and kicking it, whereas I’m not participating in that. I’m probably not going to be going out after the show to kick it. I’m going to be going back to the hotel. That’s about the only time I see it affecting me. You do become closer with other artists and that can turn into good networking opportunities, but for me the negatives can certainly outweigh the positives, in terms of doing drugs and alcohol.

In a recent interview someone asked you about the ‘new Lil Wayne’. I think they meant the sober Lil Wayne. Did you prefer him when he was fucked up?

Is Lil Wayne sober?

Yeah. Apparently.

I knew he wasn’t sipping lean, but- I am a bigger fan of Lil Wayne from 2004 to 2008, when he was definitely not sober. I don’t know if it was because he wasn’t sober, but those are my favorite Lil Wayne years. I don’t know how much it had to do with his sobriety.

Yeah, records like “Misunderstood”.

Yeah.

Those are amazing. I caught your Nuardwar interview.

Yeah, Nuardwar’s a fool, man. That’s the homie. Shout out to Nuardwar.

Sometimes he infuriates me. Why was your gig with him so short? Was he unprepared for you?

No, he actually wasn’t. I think it was a little premature. He interviewed me before it was really worth it, like I don’t if enough people knew about me then. I don’t even know if enough people know about me now. Now it would make more sense than six months ago. He asked me a bunch of questions, really personal stuff, that only our core fan-base would know. I wish we had done the interview six months, nine months later, after the record came out and there were that many more fans. It was a cool opportunity. It was cool that he even knew who I was, and wanted to interview me.

He’s probably a fan because you’re from his region.

Yeah, he cut a lot of it too. He cut a lot out. It was just so particular, like some of his questions are like, “Hold up, how did you know that?” But it was so particular that a lot of them were questions from the language of my world, or my time period. It was crazy.

Yeah, Nuardwar was talking about Drake, you reaching out to him after Comeback Season, and how he wanted “6 K for travel, rooms for two, show and verse…”. If you saw his demands now… shit, would you still bring him over? [laughs]

[laughs] I don’t think I could afford it. I think his catering list would probably equate to around $3000 itself, plus what he’s asking for the show. Naw, I don’t think so.

– By @petermarrack