Macklemoores Shattering of Typical Rap Notions with The...

Poetic Justice What kind of music inspires you? When asked this question most people’s first response would not be Rap or Hip-Hop. Listening to today’s rap music you hear the same rhythmic beat sampled and re-sampled to words that promote a â€Å"look at what I have theme†. But in 2013 an artist scaled the charts with a style and twist to Hip-Hop that appears to transcend genres. The commercial success of the album The Heist by Ben Haggerty (Macklemore), produced by Ryan Lewis, has transformed society’s notion that today’s rap music only glorifies drug and alcohol use, is materialistically centered, and homophobic. When you listen to most rap music a leitmotif of drug use and glorified alcohol consumption can be heard on most Hip-Hop artist’s albums. Macklemore is a self-proclaimed abuser of these vices. Unlike most he does not elevate these depravities but speaks of his struggles overcoming their drowning influence. In the song â€Å"St arting Over† he expresses the disgrace he feels when he relapses. Macklemore painfully illustrates this shame with the verse â€Å"Feeling sick and helpless, lost the compass where self is / I know what I gotta do and I can’t help it / One day at a time is what they tell us / Now I gotta find a way to tell them†(â€Å"Starting Over†). He explains that he knows what needs to be done to overcome this evil; nonetheless because of his dependence he has become lost, and is ashamed to say he has a problem. In his song â€Å"Neon Cathedral† he discusses how going to