Macklemore & Ryan Lewis Defend Their Style Of Hip-Hop Music

Macklemore is the rapper, Ryan Lewis is the producer, and they have been getting a lot of attention lately. Their The Heist album was released independently in October of 2012, and has sold over 700,000 copies in the U.S. The rate at which it is currently selling, it would be platinum before the end of the year. That would be a great achievement, cos I don't think any rapper has ever sold platinum on an independent label before. The video to their Thrift Shop single has gotten viewed over 300 million times on Youtube, and the single itself has sold over 6 million copies.

With all this statistics, it would surprise some that they are still being criticized for their style of music. People say they are not making authentic hiphop music; they are saying "Thrift Shop" is more of a pop song than a rap song. Read up what "Macklemore & Ryan Lewis" have to say about this below-

Macklemore reacting to a critique of their song, Thrift Shop by a New Yorks Times writer-

“I think that the dude who wrote that probably hasn’t listened to the whole album. When a song like ‘Thrift Shop’ becomes a part of popular culture and soccer moms are bumping it and 5-year-olds are singing, ‘This is fucking awesome,’ it’s really easy to go in with a scalpel and dissect it and scrutinize the shit out of it, If it was somebody else who made the song, I’d probably do the same thing, particularly if it was two white dudes. But I still think ‘Thrift Shop’ is a really great record. I think that the beat’s slapping, I think that I’m rapping my ass off, and I think that it has a really catchy chorus, and those things came together and made a record that crossed over to pop.” (Macklemore)

“Or on the flip side of that is looking to make what is current. That’s why I think somebody like Kanye is absolutely phenomenal, because he continues to come out with something that nobody else has and he redefines what the standard is to an acceptable hip-hop beat or an acceptable cadence or subject matter. It’s the reason why he is a trailblazer in the genre.”

"When you see people who have longevity in this industry, it’s people who reinvented themselves. Jay-Z, although Reasonable Doubt is one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time, Jay-Z hasn’t made 15 Reasonable Doubts. Some people wish that he would, but people evolve, artists evolve, and music evolves,” (Macklemore)

My addition- I think people don't like 'different.' But what's the essence of HipHop? It's to express one's self, and speak on society. And society is subject of time and space. Society  changes with time, and is different from place to place. The Thrift Shop song is Macklemore & Ryan Lewis expressing themselves...showing people their world. And as long as Macklemore rapped on the song, then it is classified as a hiphop song, even if subject matter and song-breakdown is 'different' from what people are used to. The fact is that there are a lot of people that can relate to their songs, and those people actually appreciate music enough to buy it, and not download illegally.