The Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ‘Thrift Shop’ video is the newest Rumor Control track of the week. These guys are mad funky, know how to shop, AND look smooth on a budget. The hip hop world could take a few fashion and music pointers from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.
Macklemore is particularly positioned to give the entire music industry some advice since he is the first unsigned artist to hit #1 on the US charts since Lisa Loeb did it with the song Stay(I Missed You) in 1994. Lisa may have been unsigned, but she had the full suport of Hollywood pushing her song into the public sphere by including it on the soundtrack for the movie Reality Bites.
I really have to give Macklemore props for doing it without a label, or movie soundtrack support. This guy just wrote some really catchy songs and produced some killer videos and then let the listening public decide if his material was worth paying attention to. One thing in particular that I love about everything I have heard from Macklemore so far is that he uses real instruments, piano, sax, and so on, and doesn’t over process his voice with that ridiculous sounding Auto-Tune processing that all the other hip hop producers and artists mistakenly seem to think is cool. This guy’s voice is real, his songs are real, and even his persona outside of his music seems pretty laid back and humble. He comes off as a guy who is just having a really good time creating his art, and likes to share his laid back “let’s just have fun” attitude with everyone around him. Every once in a great while the right thing actually happens to a talented artist. Check out his video Thrift Shop, and join in on the fun. Also post your best Thrift Shop Come-Up here!