Growing up macklemore topic clean how to#

“It’s a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifice to put in to the art,” he says.” It’s nice to see it take off in a new way on the level that it’s at right now.” The album debuted at number 1 on iTunes within hours of being released without any major label support. Thankfully he was armed with these tools because the relapse could have easily derailed him completely, but instead, he forged ahead, started over and released 2012’s The Heist, which catapulted him to international recognition. The minute that I lost the desire to numb myself was the most essential tool of the tool belt.” I used drugs and alcohol as a numbing device. I could choose them or I can just going against them. I have the ability to choose whether I’m using drugs and alcohol yet all these things that are happening to me are false. I was able to realize I had a certain amount of control but I don’t in the same sense. Getting back into a sober mind state, I got in touch with something I lost a long time ago. I don’t consider myself a religious person at all, but I do consider myself a person that believes that there is something greater than us out there. “I had lost any contact with God or power greater than myself during the time I was using drugs and alcohol. “Initially getting sober, I went to a treatment facility and there I was able to get perspective on the broader scheme of life and realize that there’s something greater than myself,” he says. Anyone who has struggled with addiction knows what a devastating blow this is, especially when you want nothing more to stay clean. Sadly, Haggerty suffered a relapse in December 2011 after returning home from a tour. It took me like 15 or 20 minutes to write the whole thing.” That’s what music has always been for me in its purest form. Music is just kind of an outlet for me to kind of clean out the cobwebs and really go through whatever it is I’m going through emotionally on a piece of paper. “I didn’t really have to think about writing that song. “That’s probably the fastest song I’ve ever written,” he says.

He quickly wrote the lyrics to what would become the song, “The Other Side,” which he did a cappella style at Tuesday’s performance.

One day he was in Lewis’ parent’s basement (which ironically is a recurring theme in his life) and Lewis looped a Red Hot Chili Peppers’ song. I moved back into my parent’s house.”Īt that point in his life, he started making music again, this time with former tour photographer Ryan Lewis, who eventually became his producer. I came out of rehab and I had nothing I was broke. Finally in 2008, for the first time in my life I went to rehab and I got sober. I went years back of forth of battling this and trying to get clean, but it was not working. If I got high or drunk, my creativity would completely shut off. During the show, he addressed his personal struggles with addiction in the most genuine and sincere way ever witnessed at a hip-hop show saying, “A lot of rappers tell you that in order for them to be creative they have to be high or drunk. 29, the Century Link Center was swarming with people of all ages, race and gender for Macklemore’s performance featuring openers Big K.R.I.T.

Growing up macklemore topic clean how to#

“I had the desire to quit using drugs and alcohol, but I didn’t know how to get out of my environment, I didn’t know how to get out of my head and really focus on who I wanted to be. “I had always wanted to get clean and sober, but didn’t really have the tools to do it,” Haggerty explains. He cites 2005-2009 as years of very low production. Haggerty was struggling with a menacing drug addiction behind closed doors, which zapped his creativity. But that’s where his career came to a screeching halt. It’s all moving incredibly fast, but they are clearly enjoying the roller coaster ride.īorn Ben Haggerty in 1983, he grew up in Seattle and graduated from Evergreen State College in 2005 during which time he released his first EP, The Language of My World. In fact, Macklemore’s face recently made the cover of Rolling Stone.

From relative obscurity to appearances on Saturday Night Live and MTV, the Seattle-based duo is deeply submerged in the spotlight.

Few indie hip-hop artists have experienced the meteoric rise to fame that Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are currently witnessing.