On the opener "Light Tunnels," he narrates a trip to an awards show: He feels desperately out of place in his town car and his tux, the industry’s eyes on him without his friends for support. Macklemore has more appeal as the everyman-a normal guy who who just stumbled into all this pageantry. (In interviews, he’s said he also lapsed back into his addiction within the past few years, giving his words a different urgency.)īut Leon Bridges’ hook is too moralizing, and it has the maudlin feel of a song written to solve a problem. Macklemore is a former addict, and his invective about the parasitic sway of drug abuse ("We play Russian Roulette/ And try to find a life where we could be content/ ‘Cause for us, we're just trying to minimize the fear of being alive") carries the moral authority of lived experience. Here, the clattering funk of "Kevin" reaches for a similar understanding about the prescription drug crisis, as the accessibility of opioids like Oxycontin has devastated low-income (and white) communities across the country. "Same Love" wasn’t complicated, but it put a human face on gay marriage that was able to connect with millions of Americans. Call him the rap game Matt McGorry-the rare white pop star making political music with explicitly middlebrow outreach.Īnd make no mistake, Macklemore is taking a lot of issues very seriously. There was a lot of effort to convince you he was taking the issue of white privilege very, very seriously. Instead, he gave interviews about the song with non-white publications, and launched a website in which he and his collaborators-including Chicago singer Jamila Woods (who sung the hook on Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment’s " Sunday Candy"), community organizer Dustin Washington, activist Nikkita Oliver, and more-detailed its conception. "Start conversations and change the way that we think and we feel." When he released "White Privilege II," a sprawling monologue in which wonders if he’s an interloper and lectures about the literal definition of white supremacy, he didn’t just drop the mic and try to let the song speak for itself. "Music was intended to be that one thing that we could rely on to disrupt the norm," Macklemore said in a video announcing the album. It also prompted criticisms that they weren’t ready to preach from the mount, and after a few years spent internalizing those criticisms, they’ve returned with This Unruly Mess I’ve Made, a blend of juvenile joke raps, inquisitive woke raps, and diaristic contemplations of Macklemore’s life that attempts to prove they belong-that they’re not just white saviors trying to project their face onto the culture. This same tension between humility and ego fueled his crossover smash hit " Same Love," which advocated for the very non-controversial idea that "being gay is okay" and made them unlikely spokesmen for easily digestible social justice. But he also needed deeply for the world to know he understood. Check out the list below.Macklemore understood that the only people who thought The Heist was better or more important than good kid were Grammy voters and misguided white teenagers. Whether you need some tunes to bust out at your next family reunion or just want to show a loved one how much you care, Billboard has rounded up the top 25 tracks that lay out the good, the bad and everything in between about familial relationships. And Kygo and The Chainsmokers’ 2019 collaboration “Family” paints a picture for all life’s ride-or-dies. Kenny Chesney’s “Don’t Blink” reminisces on life’s most precious moments with the people you love. Kanye West’s “Family Business” shouts out the people in his life who he can always count on having their support. And we can’t forget about the handful of tunes that honor mothers and fathers - including 2Pac’s public letter of appreciation “Dear Mama,” Taylor Swift’s cheerful ode “The Best Day (Taylor’s Version)” and late Swedish Avicii’s inspiring number “The Nights.”Įven if it’s your friends you call family, a variety of artists have got you covered on that front, too. There are tracks that spotlight brothers and sisters like BTS’ passionate early release “Begin” and Mickey Guyton’s modern country anthem “Sister.” Songs like Adele’s emotional ballad “My Little Love,” Stevie Wonder’s bouncy triumph “Isn’t She Lovely” and John Mayer’s Grammy-award winning “Daughters” offer a shoutout to sons and daughters. But who better to inspire a song than the people in your life who mean the most to you?įrom rock and roll to rap, nearly every genre houses songs that pay tribute to your loved ones. All artists, including musicians, have muses - whether lovers, strangers or even fictional characters.
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