I'm pretty sure you weren't allowed to be a music blogger in 2014 without writing at least one thinkpiece about Macklemore. I should know, having written three particularly acidic articles about him, one of which involved me calling up a bunch of hate groups to ask them what they thought of him. Another, I penned for this site you're reading right now. It seemed that, for a moment, the bigger Macklemore got, the more problematic he became, until at a certain point he reached the level of popularity and ubiquity that we all gave up on trying to hate him away, and instead just ignored him as he reached whatever echelon we reserve for blandly popular cultural figures that are popular in the sense that they're consumed by many people, but rarely consumed by people who matter. Think, the Duck Dynasty family, or Jonathan Franzen, or Honey Boo Boo. Macklemore is like that, but for rap.
Still, as surely as the sun will set in the West, Four Pins will post pieces of clothing that are nearly unaffordable and Jonathan Franzen will write books that you see at the airport, but will not actually purchase, the next Macklemore album will be good. Why? Because it will be, that's why. Call it a hunch, and this is completely out of nowhere, but Macklemore is not a dumb man and he knows that he will never be able to write another "Thrift Shop." And so he will not try to. Instead, he will do something different and that different thing, whatever it may be, will be good. Or, at least, not bad.
Hear me out: Macklemore has never been a bad rapper from a technical standpoint—he is as capable of the physical act of rapping as Vast Aire or, like, YG—it's just that with his album The Heist, he was not prepared for making an album for an audience bigger than the sort of people who were already predisposed to like preachy, corny underground rap music. Those looking for evidence that such people exist need look no further than Mack's hometown of Seattle, where he was not too long ago a contemporary of such corny ass cornballs as Blue Scholars, Grieves and Common Market. Those people like to be told things they already believe and The Heist did a good job of doing just that. However, by "Thrift Shop" becoming the hit that it did, Mr. Lemore exposed himself to a much, much larger audience than he bargained for and, in the process, introduced himself to a certain type of rap snob who was predisposed to hate him. The stuff Macklemore raps about is stuff we can all agree upon—that being gay is okay, that racism is bad, that you should strive to be yourself, that not spending all your money on clothes can still be fun, etc.—it's just that too many (including me, I guess) expressing obvious sentiments in obvious ways is stupid and pointless.
But much like the Parable of Big Sean, which found Sean finally making a good album after years of being shitty, if you have basically unlimited resources, the odds of you fucking your rap album up are pretty low.
It seems that Macklemore now understands that his audience is bigger than it used to be and he can no longer just make songs just for people in Seattle who look like an L.L. Bean catalog threw up. In my experience, there is no greater motivator than ridicule and shame and if there is one thing Macklemore has experienced in the past two years, it is ridicule and shame from the rap industry (along with the sort of begrudging acceptance that involves looking at someone's very obvious successes and understanding that they're doing something right even if you think it's stupid). If you have enough strangers on the Internet break down how you suck and why, it will eventually get to you and you will cease to suck as heavily.
And during an interview with Hot 97's Ebro in the Morning, Macklemore finally started sounding like he'd begun to finally Mackle less. "How do I get involved to a level," he asked, "where I'm not co-opting the movement, or I'm not making it about me, but also realizing the platform and reach that I have?" This is pretty much everything people have been saying Macklemore hasn't been doing, politically, that he now realizes he should probably do.
If I had to guess, Macklemore will be dropping new music sooner than we think. He hasn't put out a verse since last year (when he rapped on "Arrows" by Fences, who I had never heard of before ten minutes ago), which means he's probably been in the lab with a pen and a pad trying to get some damn raps off. The seismic break between his records gave me time to go back and realize that "White Walls" and "Can't Hold Us" were both bangers, the former of which knocks so hard that I actually occasionally listen to it on purpose. But it's "Gold Rush," a random Clinton Sparks song he appeared on along with 2 Chainz, that gives me genuine hope for the days of Mackleman to come. First off, it's a Macklemore song with 2 Chainz! That right there is the definition of a tiny miracle. Second, while 2 Chainz's verse smacks of the sort of grim determination rappers tend to reserve for verses motivated chiefly by financial obligation (not to mention the song itself is sort of bad), Macklemore FUCKING SNAPS on his verse. He raps like a guy who the entire universe has written off as a lame, for whom a song with a guy like 2 Chainz is a once and a lifetime opportunity to show and prove. Suddenly, he's rapping about Mark Morrison and making fun of himself for wearing a poncho and ends up asking a girl if she's down to have a threesome. All of this is obviously hilarious and it's the first time that Macklemore has dropped the self-righteous patina that keeps most of his music from being enjoyable. Instead, he sounds like he's simply rapping for the sake of rapping. And it's fun! More importantly, the verse makes him sound like he's rapping from a position inside the circle of popular hip-hop, rather than skimming the edges while collecting "Thrift Shop" residual checks.
Listen, I doubt Macklemore is going to realize his best case scenario, which would be to change his name to "Stacklemore" and make political songs with Killer Mike and Lil Boosie, plus some songs about how fucking awesome he is with Quavo and Soulja Boy. But much like the Parable of Big Sean, which found Sean finally making a good album after years of being shitty, if you have basically unlimited resources, the odds of you fucking your rap album up are pretty low. Macklemore, I wish you luck on your path towards further unshittiness.
Drew Millard is the jury and the jury's still out. Follow him on Twitter here.
