ARTIST: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
ALBUM: This Unruly Mess I’ve Made
LABEL: Macklemore LLC
RELEASE DATE: February 26, 2016
Livin’ the Art
Written by Silas Valentino
For those outside the Pacific Northwest, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ overnight success in 2012 was as galactic as it was jarring. Who were these smiley white guys from grungy Seattle topping charts with songs that praised same-sex love and hand-me-down clothes who eventually beat King Kendrick Lamar for the “Best New Artist” Grammy? Seattleites had known of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis for years – the duo ruled the city’s DIY hip-hop scene with their pensive flows and juicy beats – but now the popular culture beyond was devouring the two and spitting out the parts least enjoyed: their safe soccer mom appeal, easy listening muzak and the ultimate hip-hop vilification from their white skins.
These demotions become ammo throughout their second studio album This Unruly Mess I’ve Made. It’s a thirteen-song therapy visit spanning an hour that invites listeners inside the cranium of a hyper-conscience MC digesting fame and the ridiculousness while his trusty beat poet sidekick gives rhythm to the details.
This Unruly Mess I’ve Made picks up almost perfectly where their debut breakthrough LP The Heist left off. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis actually win their Grammy during the third verse, incorporating a sound bite of the award’s announcement. Strangely audacious, this album opener – “Light Tunnels” – is a classic Mack track where the proud wordsmith isn’t shy about admitting his insecurities for using Youtube to learn how to tie his tie while his stoic producer makes beats that please the indie kids. (This could be utter coincidence but the song’s opening electronic keyboard drop sounds unmistakably similar to a James Blake motif – an artist also beat out for that Grammy award… Macklemore & Ryan Lewis might be choppin’ heads.) And like all good power point presentations, Macklemore begins by telling us where the next hour will go: “Just in time, what will I say?/Time to explain this unruly mess I’ve made.”
Lead single “Downtown” is a mess. But a sexy mess; like a 2 a.m. bar closer. Lewis’ production is all over the place, snipping clear influences from forgotten hits à la Men Without Hat’s “The Safety Dance” and Petula Clark’s “Downtown” and then mashing them together as a response to last year’s monumental hit “Uptown Funk.” It’s a hard-to-hate song (it’s all about purchasing a moped…) but it exhibits a fatal flaw for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
Sure, moments like “Downtown,” “Brad Pitt’s Cousin” and “Dance Off” are some happy-go-lucky tunes pruned for a top down Cadillac cruise but they present Macklemore & Ryan Lewis as town jesters – not criers. It’s this sunny flub that discredits This Unruly Mess I’ve Made’s centerpiece – “White Privilege II” – where Macklemore has an internal back and forth with himself as he dissects contemporary race issues from eyes inside white sockets.
There’s no doubt he’s fighting from the side of justice but the song fails to take off. His countless questions about cultural appropriation and his “watered down pop bullshit” are indeed valid yet offer no answers and end up as a mosaic of frustration, adding more white noise to this complicated issue. At the end of its eight minutes, “White Privilege II” accomplishes little for Macklemore. Inevitably, it’s a sonic rendition of his apology/respect text to Kendrick Lamar following the Grammy’s – which Macklemore posted online for all to read. In his attempt to do right he has fumbled.
“But shit – it was 99 cents!” And the moments on This Unruly Mess I’ve Made that don’t topple over its awkward ambition work swimmingly: “Growing Up,” “Kevin” and “Need To Know” are stellar moments that find the middle ground between Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ playful manor and authentic craft. Keep it even, fellas. You don’t go to a thrift shop or Starbucks for racial discourse.