Giving a 4 star because…
4
By Chance Crimin
Macklemore is a victim of his own success, his only wrongdoing is being so good as a duo with Ryan Lewis that his songs were overplayed into oblivion, and his fan base became somewhat annoying and a turn off to a lot of people. And a lot of his old fans were bothered by his newfound “mainstream” success. I think even Macklemore was bothered by it. In many ways since the heist, he’s kinda burned down what he built by disappearing, or releasing controversial songs calling out the music industry.
Like other objectively good, and popular bands — hipsters and certain hip hop heads really don’t like Macklemore, because he is too mainstream and is leaning into the pop / rap genre too much. While I agree this album did go a little too Pop (songs like Sorry, Day You Die, No Bad Days, to name a few)
They are still good songs, and honestly — I don’t blame him for appealing to the fan base he’s picked up over the years. I just wish he would come out with a full old school rap album to raise his image a bit, and to silence a few of his haters. Overall, I found this album to be enjoyable. A few stand outs were “Chant, Gods Will, I know, heroes, grime, tail lights, 1984, and Faithful”
