gang West Side Story plotline, the line вЂњMow your damn lawn/And sit the fuck down!вЂќ, the final mass flash mob through the streets of Seattle. After essentially soft-launching a new album cycle with the release of the low-key personal tune Growing Up (SloaneвЂ™s Song), Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have officially swaggered back onto the scene with the release of the video for the new single Downtown. MacklemoreвЂ™s flares, Eric NallyвЂ™s motorbike chariot, the gang vs. Ed Sheeran LyricistBudo, Ed Sheeran, Josh Rawlings, Macklemore, Owuor Arunga & Ryan Lewis ProducerRyan Lewis Verse. Macklemore and Ryan LewisвЂ™s Downtown: not a Petula Clark cover. Eric NallyвЂ™s voice soars into a range that can only be described as remarkable, giving the track a glittering and stadium-rock atmosphere that serves to further its 70s agenda.ДЄll of this storytelling is contextualised by the video that elevates the track into the realm of unabashedly corny. And itвЂ™s this self-awareness that makes this track stellar, moving effortlessly from witty verses packed with retro references to a sudden chorus that bursts with Freddie Mercury charm. After breaking a nearly three-year recording hiatus earlier this month, with the release of Growing Up, Macklemore. The opening trill of pianos and very groovy cowbell-beat underscoring MacklemoreвЂ™s insistence that he вЂњdonвЂ™t know nothing about mopedsвЂќ immediately evokes a 70s throwback thatвЂ™s campy and self-aware. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are scheduled to perform at the MTV VMAs this weekend, so naturally, they drop a new single leading up to the show.The single, which is titled 'Downtown,' is a funky. Maybe itвЂ™s the unexpectedly comedic storytelling of the track that Macklemore does so well. But thereвЂ™s a particular quality of the song (and indeed the video, which you can watch below) that demands a second, third, and fourth listening. Is the 70s inspiration perhaps too derivative and too reminiscent of recent hits like Uptown Funk? Does the track almost sound like a checklist of the вЂњpop hitвЂќ elements that made Thrift Shop so successful? Is MacklemoreвЂ™s ode to mopeds slightly contrived? Yes, yes, and a resounding yes. вЂDowntownвЂ™ follows-up Macklemore and Ryan LewisвЂ™ recent collaboration with Ed Sheeran called вЂGrowing UpвЂ which was dedicated to MacklemoreвЂ™s one-year-old daughter. ItвЂ™s weird and dramatic and funky вЂ“ but do we love the unashamed cheesiness? Success has only intensified MacklemoreвЂ™s conflicted relationship with rap: On his 2017 solo single, вЂњGood Old Days,вЂќ he looks back fondly at his early years as an unknown MC trying to break into the game however, the trackвЂ™s elegant, ascendant piano chords and heartrending Kesha cameo suggests heвЂ™s grown evermore accustomed to playing the crowd-pleasing pop star.Downtown is Macklemore and Ryan LewisвЂ™s first official single since the acclaimed The Heist (not Growing Up (SloaneвЂ™s Song) featuring an unfortunate Ed Sheeran).

Their 2012 self-released debut, The Heist, crashed the Billboard Top 5 and scooped up four Grammys thanks to a string of unlikely crossover hits-like the sax-squawked anti-luxury anthem вЂњThrift ShopвЂќ and the pro-LGBTQ ballad вЂњSame LoveвЂќ-that betrayed his love of pre-millennial hip-hop sounds while interrogating some of the genreвЂ™s problematic materialist and homophobic tendencies. Upon connecting with producer Ryan Lewis in 2009, Macklemore finally acquired the megaphone that allowed him to project his big ideas to the masses.

MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - DOWNTOWN (KID PARODY - Playground) Mjones23. But during those DIY days, Macklemore developed a reputation for intense introspection and keen cultural observations-on his 2005 track вЂњWhite Privilege,вЂќ he examined not only the gentrification of hip-hop from black street music to commercial commodity but also his own complicity in that process as a white MC. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Growing Up Sloane's Song ft. Hip-hop, he said, was вЂњmy means of trying to figure out who I am, and to figure out my truth, and look at society and get closer to a connection to something much bigger than myself.вЂќ It would take some time for him to make that greater connection: The MC born Benjamin Haggerty in 1983 dropped his first mixtape in 2000 and spent the next decade doing the underground grind. In a 2016 interview with Apple Music, Seattle rapper Macklemore recounted the moment when, at age 17, he realized his lifeвЂ™s true calling.

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