After Macklemore and Ryan Lewis took home four Grammys in January, including, perhaps most controversially, the nod for “Best Rap Album,” music consumers across the country had a lot to say about it. Many people felt that the honor was unwarranted, especially given the fact that Macklemore was a newcomer to the rap game competing with established talents such as Kanye West and Jay-Z. But I’m here to encourage Macklemore to forget the haters, hold his platinum-blonde capped head high and know that he absolutely, unequivocally deserved that Grammy. He earned it. There was, dare I say, no one else more worthy than he. Let me explain.
We can begin with the lyrical content of the champion rap album, “The Heist”. There’s just so much with which a listener can critically engage. In “White Walls,” for instance, the refrain has Macklemore repeatedly describing for us his late night joy ride: “I got that off-black Cadillac, midnight drive / Got that gas pedal, lean back, taking my time / I’m rollin’ out, roof off, letting in sky / I shine, the city never looked so bright.” Pure poetry, right? And don’t even get me started on the symbolism! Why is the Cadillac off-black? Is it reflective of Macklemore’s inner emotional uncertainty? His unfulfilled desires? His shortcomings? The possibilities are endless.
Additionally, as an artist, Macklemore is particularly good at one thing: making privileged white males feel better about themselves and allaying white guilt. And I think we need more of that in popular culture. We need to keep telling rich hipster kids that they’re cool and trendy — in fact, they’re practically rockstars who can take clubs by storm — for shopping at thrift stores.
It’s important to have chart-toppers which emphasize the aesthetic and personal benefits of second-hand shopping over the environmental and social impacts. Macklemore has gained a huge platform partly by exploiting his institutional privilege, and he should be able to utilize that power however he wants. If he wants to sing about nice cars, parties, and making serious bank, I think that’s great — even admirable.
Anyway, it’s certainly not as if Macklemore’s entire album caters to one specific demographic — he did write “Same Love” as a shout-out to the LGBTQ community. And statistics show that a white male ally is the best person to be the voice of the equality movement. Catchy pop songs have tangible benefits in the real world struggle. In fact, according to one source, within a month of the song’s release, there was a 30 percent increase in the number of adolescents that came out — many directly to their bullies, who accepted them with open arms because, well, Macklemore said it was good idea. Many teens who responded to the survey admitted they had quoted Macklemore directly in their coming out speech. Making people feel good and making white men act less shitty than they have, you know, historically and consistently — these should be celebrated.
Indeed, it should be more than celebrated: it should be valued. It should be valued even more highly than artistic quality, lyrical innovation or thought-provoking social commentary. If we, as a culture, are going to endorse the idea that a person (or group of people) can judge art in any type of objective fashion and assign it value through the means of an annual awards show, who’s to say that any one value system is superior to another? It seems our new standards involve commercial success and profit — and Macklemore should definitely be rewarded for conforming so well to those standards.
Sure, it may be a fair assessment that songs like Kanye West’s “New Slaves” and Jay-Z’s “Picasso Baby,” which discuss modern manifestations of racism, have slightly more substance than the songs on Macklemore’s magnum opus. But we don’t care about race relations or minority voices very much — frankly, just writing this sentence has made me super uncomfortable. Being forced to confront societal problems before the beat even drops just brings down the mood in the club.
As I think I’ve made abundantly clear, the conversation about the merits of Macklemore’s work should be over. I’d like to wish him hearty congratulations on his well-deserved Grammy, for he surely did produce the best rap album of 2013.
Ashley (A-shizzy) Sphinx is an aspiring rapper.
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