76Macklemore’s
Guilt Trip
To make his
new album,
the Seattle MC
had to i nally
confront his
demons – not
to mention his
place in hip-
hop, and white
America
By Jonah
Wei ner
PHOTOGRAPH BY
MARK SELIGERM
acklemore sends a text at a
quarter to noon: “Pulling up in 1 min.
I’m in a crimson Hummer.”
The Hummer part’s a joke, it turns
out, but right on time, the Seattle hip-
hop star arrives in something no less
eye-popping: a black 2008 Cadillac DTS Biarritz with tint-
ed windows, a cream-colour vinyl top, whitewall tires and
rows of tiny cactuses painted along its rear fl anks. Mack-
lemore – 32, Seattle-born and the hugest white rapper since
Eminem – became a Cadillac obsessive as a kid, mainlin-
ing California gangsta rap through his Walkman; he bought
the DTS a few years ago “with my fi rst real rap money”, he
says. He’s got an arm draped over the steering wheel and an
18-karat-gold, diamond-faced Rolex President on his wrist.
Puncturing the aura of ostentation is the moulded-
plastic car seat mounted behind him: property of Mack-
lemore’s nine-month-old daughter, Sloane. Also punctur-
ing it is the car’s smashed grille: “I fucked it up yesterday,”
he says. “I was driving, on my phone, looking at World
Star” – a video-sharing site devoted to hip-hop culture- “and I was thinking, ‘This is a really stupid thing to be
doing.’ And right at that moment, I rear-ended a truck.”
He grimaces, shaking his head, and we pull out. It’s a
January day in Seattle, and Macklemore, born Ben Hag-
gerty, has bigger things to worry about. He’s getting ready
to put out This Unruly Mess I’ve Made, his sixth release
and second album with creative partner and musical ar-
chitect Ryan Lewis. Their debut LP was 2012’s smash
The Heist, which went platinum and controversially beat
out Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Jay Z and Kanye West for
the Best Rap Album Grammy. It featured, among other
hits, the inescapable “Thrift Shop” – an ode to swagger