Macklemore and Ryan Lewis - The Heist

Seaneh

What ya all think of this album?

Was released last week and spent most of the week at #1 in the itunes charts.

No record deal, no distribution deal, 100% self funded, published and produced.

Crazy achievement in this day and age!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_DIkJ0Ca10

Boom_Bap

Haven't listened yet, but it's queued at home.

Amazing acheivement for them, not only that, they sell out shows everywhere as well with not your traditional commercial hip hop.

floggg

I heard a few songs from these guys a few months back and thought they were ok but nothing great. At the time I thought Mack's flow was kinda awkward.

So the Same Love video a few weeks ago and thought that's actually kinda good. Gave the album a try and have been bumping them all week. It's a very consistent album and Mack's lyrics and flow are great, despite my first impression.

Kinda reminds me of Slug a bit when he gets personal with his lyrics, especially the likes of Starting Over.

Mikeyt086

Downloading it now, been meaning to since release. I've only gotten into Macklemore since around May but jesus I'm loving his stuff. Same Love was cool, Ellen tweeted out the video to her followers saying how great it is to see a gender equality hip hop song, so that absolutely blew up in terms of views, now he's at #1 all week I have to say it's great to see. Thrift Shop got a crazy amount of plays on my iPod when it dropped, love that song. Will no doubt be a few great tracks on the album so I'll report back when I hear them.

Oleg Luzhny

"The Heist" is an incredible album. I love every song on it. It's a roller coaster, the track order is perfect. I felt so many different emotions while listening to this record.

7 of the songs had already been released. Then there's two songs; "Neon Cathedral" and "Ten Thousand Hours", that they'd performed live but this was the first time hearing the studio versions. Loved both of them. Then we had 9 brand new songs, really liked the two TDE collaborations ("White Walls" and "Jimmy Iovine") and "Awake", but my two favourite "brand new" songs were "Starting Over" and "Cowboy Boots". "Starting Over" would break your heart, the first time I heard it, I just thought "WOW". And I loved "Cowboy Boots" as well and thought it worked really well coming after "Starting Over".

I LOVED this album and would definitely recommend it. It very nearly got an XXL rating in XXL too. It's been crazy to see how far Macklemore & Ryan Lewis have come this year and it's great to see, they both very much deserve it.

Also, I ordered 1 copy of the album from Macklemore.com but they sent me 3 for some reason!!

http://www.xxlmag.com/reviews/2012/10/macklemore-ryan-lewis-the-heist/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjpo5_aC9XE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HZ4xd-2RSg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpjad9q5PhI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfxwXSbb-XQ

Soby

Loving it , only listen to him when "Cant hold us" was on the Bud ? ad i think , since then hooked to him

Seaneh

Just did my first full listen through (on the train, no distractions).

Really good album, only 1 song I didn't like (castles) but besides that it's good start to finish, Starting Over is ****ing deep.


I loved most of his stuff so far, so not surprised I liked it, but it's even better than I thought it would be.

Seaneh

The fact that a thread on Kendrick Lemar has 18 pages and 12,900 views and this thread after 2 and a half days only has 6 replies and 178 views kinda proves that the vas majority of people on here have ****ing terrible taste in music.

shaking my ****ing head.

hiphop isn't dead, it's just wading through ****e!

Seaneh

This song is insanely personal.
Ben Haggerty is a ****ing genius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXwO7PwuPIY

Boom_Bap

Finally gave it a run through.

Great album from start to finish. My one complaint would be that it's slightly too long, but I dont see what could be left out. There is the instrumental track BomBom which could have been left out to shorten, but it adds in a well needed break from following the lyrics. It would be hard to leave anything from the album on the chopping room floor.

Macklemore has a certain charisma that leaves you hanging on his words. That along with the Marching Band inspired beats, the humour, the yarns, the disco, old school touches make this a great release.

There is even a song about our own poster Jimmy Iovine

This is one of the better albums this year.

Kylo Ren

Have it queued up. Will listen to is asap.

floggg

I don't think an interest in Kendrick is indicative of bad taste in music!

Wonder how (the real) Jinmy Iovine felt about one of his employers (Ab-Soul) appearing on that track? Not reall representing for his team, is he!

I know the white rapper comparison is lazy, but was thinking the other day how Starting Over really shows Eminem's limitations as an artist.

With Eminem, his focus is often on the technicalities of rapping - trying to fit as many syllables and rhyme patterns into his bars as possible - to the exclusion sometimes of depth and emotion. When Em stops rhyming for shock value and tries tackling something more, like the post-drug addiction tracks on relapse/recovery, me kinda just came off like he was whining and moaning. You never connected or understood him.

Then Macklemore comes along with a track like starting over and shows you that the sentiment and emotion behind lyrics are often more powerful than the words themselves. An amazing track.

Also, I think the second verse of A Wake is kinda like a white guys take on Murs' third verse from And This is For...

Shapey Fiend

That the Kendrick topic has more views is a rare sign that this forum has some semblance of taste. Macklemore makes cheesy sentimental struggle rap for white people. How he's sold so well is easy to understand. Same formula as Mac Miller.

floggg

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

That the Kendrick topic has more views is a rare sign that this forum has some semblance of taste. Macklemore makes cheesy sentimental struggle rap for white people. How he's sold so well is easy to understand. Same formula as Mac Miller.

Cheesy? Nothing cheesy about this. It's a very sincere, honest, reflective and insightful album.

And what's wrong with reflecting a white persons perspective and struggles? He is white after all, as are most of us here I'd wager. It should be easier to relate to than racism, reganomics, drugs dealing, prostitution etc.

Mikeyt086

I just listened to it. In fact, I drove out of my way to extend my drive home by 30mins so I could continue listening.

It's absolutely amazing. Totally blew me away. Not one track I didn't like, but I was absolutely in love with:

-Ten Thousand Hours
-Cant Hold Us & Thrift Shop (had heard before)
-Make The Money
-Jimmy Iovine
-White Walls
-Wing$
-Gold
-Starting Over
-A Wake
-Castle (had me ****ting myself laughing in the car.

It's an absolute masterpiece.

Jason Todd

floggg wrote: »

Kinda reminds me of Slug a bit when he gets personal with his lyrics, especially the likes of Starting Over.

Never heard this guy before, but really really like it and Slug is the first person that popped into my head, and Eyedea (RIP), lovin' it, thanks, needed something new to listen to!

baddebt

brilliant Album ,
into my personal top 5 albums of the year for sure

Jigga

Am I mad but does anyone else think Ryan Lewis is the head off Paul Galvin?

Boom_Bap

nice little docu from the time they where filming the Thrift Shop video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JErUzr8GSvU

Kylo Ren

Loved it. On the top 5 albums of the year easily.

Ardennes1944

fantastic album, wasnt sure at the start i must admit but it has really grown. i can only mirror the comments made already. so glad i got to the concert last month and got to meet em

MD1990

this is a great album
one of the best of 2012

Kylo Ren

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zNSgSzhBfM

zeds alive

Sounds rubbish TBH , over commercialised poppy hip hop , reminds me of the music you hear in river Island.

On a hip hop scale of 10 , it gets a 1/10.

Boom_Bap

zeds alive wrote: »

Sounds rubbish TBH , over commercialised poppy hip hop , reminds me of the music you hear in river Island.

On a hip hop scale of 10 , it gets a 1/10.

I think it's ace. The 90's 2Unlimited style beat laced with modern synth, with catchy vocals on the hook, and Mackelmore riding the beat perfectly. It's a winner.

The overly commercialised sound that I think you are talking abouit would be any Will.I.Am track of late, this is distinctly different.

zeds alive

I dunno ,I'll give anything a fair chance , but this does nothing for me. His flow sounds like 90% of white rappers , his body language is that of a white guy imitating what he sees black rappers do. The production is good but very cliched and typical of mainstream rap.

Paul mooney gets it right here , controversial but right.

@1:20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV7ilFcozHs

LUPE

I definitely like Thrift Shop and Can't Hold Us but as pop songs, like if it comes on the radio in the car you turn it up kinda songs. The rest that I've heard off it I can't get into at all, when he doesn't have a killer beat or hook he shows himself up as a thoroughly mediocre rapper.

Fair play to him though, he's doing incredibly well.

Seaneh

zeds alive wrote: »

I dunno ,I'll give anything a fair chance , but this does nothing for me. His flow sounds like 90% of white rappers , his body language is that of a white guy imitating what he sees black rappers do. The production is good but very cliched and typical of mainstream rap.

Paul mooney gets it right here , controversial but right.

@1:20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV7ilFcozHs

Paul Mooney is a racist cretin.
End of.

zeds alive

Seaneh wrote: »

Paul Mooney is a racist cretin.
End of.

That's debatable , but he has a point , why do white rappers feel the need to carry and present themselves as black people while rapping?
And I find the blackface comments pretty spot on IMO.

I can't find any fault with comments like "why do you have to pretend to be black , just rap , just be yourself , don't try be something you're not"

Boom_Bap

MOD Note: Do not turn this thread into a debate about colour. This thread about Macklemore & Ryan Lewis's music.

zeds alive

All good Mod , can I start a thread about hip hop and race? the 2 are inseparable.

Boom_Bap

zeds alive wrote: »

All good Mod , can I start a thread about hip hop and race? the 2 are inseparable.

No you cant open a new thread about it, there have been similar discussions before that have just turned into a sh*tstorm.

zeds alive

okay

Search out that documentary that paul mooney , features on , well worth a watch.

Niall_Buck

Macklemore's a brilliant rapper!
The Heist is genius. The song 'Same love' would really make ya think! You really don't see songs with that kind of message in main stream hip hop very often, or ever!

Shapey Fiend

That a man who made something as insulting to our culture as Irish Celebration can be wildly popular and selling out shows in this country is pretty appalling. His music is ghastly on every level.

I don't get any sense of sincerity from his music (probably because he steals Slugs delivery wholesale). A tune like 'Same Love' just seems like a grab for attention to me. Lemmie see what message for the downtrodden will get me hype with lefty liberal media that don't like hip hop. It's hip hop for people that don't like hip hop. It's like one of those instructional anti-piracy raps telling you not to copy that floppy cos it's copyright infringement. Rap against rape. Black Eye'd Peas Where is the love? Why can you be more tolerant? Stop playing Postal 2 and give your sister a hug! etc.

Rjd2

LUPE wrote: »

I definitely like Thrift Shop and Can't Hold Us but as pop songs, like if it comes on the radio in the car you turn it up kinda songs. The rest that I've heard off it I can't get into at all, when he doesn't have a killer beat or hook he shows himself up as a thoroughly mediocre rapper.

.

You think this is mediocre, harsh fella.:o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXwO7PwuPIY

LUPE

Rjd2 wrote: »

You think this is mediocre, harsh fella.:o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXwO7PwuPIY

Genuinely yeah, tedious and monotonous delivery, nothing special lyrically.

floggg

Shapey Fiend wrote: »

That a man who made something as insulting to our culture as Irish Celebration can be wildly popular and selling out shows in this country is pretty appalling. His music is ghastly on every level.

I don't get any sense of sincerity from his music (probably because he steals Slugs delivery wholesale). A tune like 'Same Love' just seems like a grab for attention to me. Lemmie see what message for the downtrodden will get me hype with lefty liberal media that don't like hip hop. It's hip hop for people that don't like hip hop. It's like one of those instructional anti-piracy raps telling you not to copy that floppy cos it's copyright infringement. Rap against rape. Black Eye'd Peas Where is the love? Why can you be more tolerant? Stop playing Postal 2 and give your sister a hug! etc.

I think we Irish can be hypocritical about the whole drinking thing. We take offence whenever somebody else paints us as alcoholics, yet we take pride in our drinking ability when amongst out own.

And having a Mexican boyfriend for the past few 7 months, I've learned we are most certainly alcoholics in Ireland (not all Irish obviously but the culture as a whole us geared that way).

Now that said, I thought that song was kinda corny but I don't think we can blame others if that's how we are seen.

As for Same Love, I can tell you that as a gay hip-hop fan I find that song to be very authentic and genuine and in no way get the impression it's an attempt at attention seeking.

Perhaps when I heard the song first I may have gotten that impression, but after seeing the video you can see that it is 100% genuine.

I'm not going to lie, I was quite emotional when I saw it first - as a gay hip-hop fan I've had to accept that many of the genre's greatest have made music that was to varying degrees hateful of hurtful to me.

It was only the second time (after Murs' Animal Style) that I felt able to properly reconcile being gay and being a hip-hop fan.

I think the fact that they donated the song to the recent marriage equality campaign in Washington and the proceeds from the single (which was top 5 I think in Australia) also demonstrates their bona fides on the song.

I've seen some corny attempts by YouTube rappers to make a name by reaching out to the LGBT community before, and even David Banners attempt on his album with 9th Wonder - which while perhaps well intended ended up perpetrating an offensive myth about gay men just being damaged and confused.

Same Love isn't the same cynical type of stunt.