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“I don’t know why/but it’s like I can’t stay quiet/this I my voice/I can’t let it die inside me.” Macklemore is back with his sophomore effort and is cleaning out his closet. After a four-year hiatus, Seattle’s favorite thrift shop aficionado, Macklemore, has teamed up with producer Ryan Lewis to bring out the seven track VS. EP, his first full project since the 2005 northwest classic Language of My World. The VS. EP meshes Macklemore’s lyrics with industry samples from various genres, including Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Killers and Belrut.
The intro track “Vipassana”, sampling the Caribou beat “Subotrick” builds towards an epic sound at the end features a prayer from the Vipassana meditation. Right after this comes “Crew Cuts” featuring Olympia emcee Xperience. The duo display their inner teenage punk with a middle finger to Steven Tyler in favor of Ice Cube and the rap life, a message embodied by any early 80’s born hip-hop head.
Other highlights on the EP include “Otherside”, named after the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ hit song that it samples, an intense first person narative of the roller coaster ride with syrup and other drugs that drove him away from the music and back to his parent’s basement. The track embodies the story of an artist incapable of reaching his creativity, lost in an abyss through which “We sell our dreams and our potential to escape through that buzz.”
On a lighter note, “Irish Celebration” is an ode to the history and the notorious ability of Irishmen to out-drink the worthiest challenger. A self-proclaimed “drinking song”, the combination of Macklemore’s catchy cadence and the Belrut sample provide a song that could serenade men with pitchers in Dublin or Boston.
The outro for the EP “The End” brings the listener to a dance held in a gymnasium, a setting for the successful victory over fear and acceptance of the art that is placed within. In what may be the closest experience to understanding who the artist really is Macklemore’s words are the vehicle that delivers the reality of weakness and the struggle to find confidence, emphatically aided by the trumpets laid by Budo.
Ryan Lewis’ production and use of samples work perfectly to guide the Macklemore’s poetry, who after four years, has picked up right where he left off on Language of My World and displaying growth not only as a vocalist, but also as a philosopher.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:26 am
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