Here are 25 facts you may or may not have known about Macklemore x Ryan Lewis. Thought of up by the COM staff or Complex Mag.
25. Shared a Volvo with his girlfriend (now fiancee) before buying his Cadillac that inspired the song White Walls.24. The song Jimmy Iovine is not about Jimmy Iovine it's about the music industry and Iovine is the biggest name of presidents and CEO's of label companies.
23. Macklemore x Ryan Lewis met Jimmy Iovine and he gave them free Beats by Dre... they are still Independent no worries.
22. Macklemore worked at the Seattle Zoo (where he took money from the register to put towards music), a record store and a security guard in a juvenile prison where he taught the kids music and writing raps.
21. Macklemore met both Ryan Lewis and his fiancee on MySpace. He proposed to Tricia (girlfriend of 7 years) in January.
20. Macklemore is not gay. The song Same Love was inspired by his godfather and two uncles (are the cover art for the single).19. Macklemore was close to getting Drake to come out to Seattle back before So Far Gone was released. Macklemore would do a show with Drake and have a song together for 6k dollars. Drake now costs 500k to book for one show. (Photo to left)
18. Macklemore was 14 when he first smoked weed and drank alcohol. He was 25 when he quit and started his sobriety.
17. Macklemore sold drugs when he was 14 to help buy recording equipment for music.
16. Macklemore cleaned up in August of 2008 and was sober for 3 plus years until relapsing in December of 2011. He explains this "failure" and pain in his touching song, Starting Over.
15. Macklemore does not like being called a "conscious rapper" as he states in his song A Wake.
14. Before Ryan teamed up with Macklemore he was in a heavy metal band.
13. L.A. Reid flew out to Macklemore x Ryan Lewis' show in Montana in an attempt to sign the duo. They declined the offer kindly.
12. Macklemore is actually terrible at basketball. He played baseball for one year in high school then chose to focus on music.
11. It took Macklemore x Ryan Lewis 3 years to complete The Heist.
10. Macklemore x Ryan Lewis doubled in popularity from 2010 until 2012 (before the release of The Heist) without releasing a project of any sort; just creative music videos.
9. Macklemore has been rapping since he was 14 years old, currently 29 (turning 30 in June of 2013).
8. The Heist was originally named "The Great American Heist" but changed the name after Lupe's new album was released shortly before.
7. The duo has songs on the way featuring: Ab-Soul, Tech N9ne, Mac Miller and more.
6. The song "Ten Thousand Hours" was inspired by Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers.
5. Macklemore actually bought the beat to Can't Hold Us from Ryan Lewis for about $50 back when the two first met.4. Jimmy Iovine wants to be in the music video for, Jimmy Iovine. He was showed the song by Ellen (Degeneres) and loved it.
3. Wings had more than 40 different versions before picking the final edition. One version featured the chorus of Make The Money as the hook of Wings.
2. Macklemore's favorite rapper at the moment is Kendrick Lamar. The two will preform together for the first time on March 22 in Winston-Salem, NC (COM will be covering). They will then both be headliners for Paid Dues 2013 in Californina.
1. Macklemore x Ryan Lewis are currently working on new music, videos and a project for their fans. Something new should be released once they return from Australia I would think.
Macklemore // Ryan Lewis // COM
Right now Ben and Ryan are the top of not just the Independent music community or hip-hop community but the entire music industry. Congrats to the two cats for making it to the top, no one has worked harder than these two fellows and their entire team to get to where they are today. Congratulations my friends, I'll take the time now to let you know that if I get into Seattle University or University of Washington I will be moving to Seattle for college and interning with the team known as #sharkfacegang. Dream Big.
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Dang. Looks like the show on the 22nd is sold out. (Of course it is.) So glad I got to see them in Asheville. Good luck on getting to Seattle! I'll dream big with you. P.S. I think it's Malcolm Gladwell not Marcus.
ReplyDeleteI hope you come Seattle U. This place is pretty dope!!
ReplyDeleteThis is great. Now I know a lot more about the two. In September 2013 I go to her concert in Frankfurt. I'm so excited!
ReplyDeletelove their songs.kind of weird but understanding.keep up the good work :)
ReplyDeleteActually, Wings/Make the Money was originally a spoken word piece http://www.thatsthatish.com/2009/08/macklemore-air-jordans-live-video.html
ReplyDeleteWe want you in OZ you have to come cant wait just love the music the lyrics just all of it
ReplyDeleteCertainly learned a lot about the artiste form this post. I didn't know about his association with Drake. It just goes to show, there's a lot that we don't know about people, despite the fact that the media hounds them almost every day.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that he started his music career at such a young age and kept going. I hope that he learns that being called a conscious rapper is not a bad thing. We need more people who are not pushing out mindless drivel in the arts.
as someone who became a fan in the summer of 2010, I think number 10 is misleading. macklemore and ryan lewis released the 'versus ep' free online in november 2009, then proceeded to tour the country as an opener for the blue scholars (whose national popularity was on the rise, in spite of sampling owl city and generally sinking in quality).
ReplyDeletealthough there was a lot of buzz in Seattle, i don't think it would account for the doubling of their popularity during that time.
http://ryanlewis.bandcamp.com/album/the-vs-ep
If you go by the numbers they had roughly 10-20k fans on Facebook and by the end of Summer 2011 around 80k, then end of Summer 2012 around 150k
Deletei think it's amazing that independent artists, ones as talented as macklemore and ryan lewis, have come so far. i just think your statement is misleading because they released a free album just before 2010 began and toured nationally with a bigger act, as well as showing at festivals such as seattle's capitol hill block party... so they put in that work to get their music out there, and there's clear actions that contributed to their popularity.
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