Macklemore and Ryan Lewis reunite on wax for their first time in five years with their latest collaboration, “Next Year.”
The duo taps recording artist Windser for the new single, which arrives alongside a music video directed by Jason Koenig. “Next Year” marks Macklemore and Lewis’ first collaborative effort since their 2016 joint album The Unruly Mess I’ve Made, which served as the follow-up to their Grammy-winning 2012 album The Heist.
“This is the first new music I’ve released in quite some time and I got to work with my guy Ryan Lewis, on production again.” Macklemore said in a statement. “Ryan first played this for me in his car, as a rough demo but it immediately stood out. I then wrote a bunch of verses quickly and went down to LA to record. And with the time that had passed, I felt a little apprehension at first; however, once we started the creative process, it felt like we hadn’t skipped a day.”
“I remember playing the demo for ‘Next Year’ in the car for Ben and he just lit up,” Lewis shared. “We hadn’t worked together in a few years and each of our processes had grown and evolved in that time working independently of each other, so it was scary and exciting to see how it would go getting back in the studio — all in all, it was like everything had changed and yet nothing had changed at all! Working on the song turned into working on the video, which then turned into late nights and a lot of laughing. It felt like a fresh start for our creativity and a reminder of the powerful force we make together – I missed my guy.”
Macklemore is currently working on the follow-up to his 2017 LP Gemini. Watch the video for “Next Year” up top and stream the track below.
