Macklemore
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Macklemore [ ˈmæk.ləˌmɔːɹ ] (born June 19, 1983 in Seattle , Washington ; real name Ben Haggerty ) is an American rapper from Seattle. His lyrics are often political; his songs deal with drug use, same-sex marriage and socially critical issues. He became known from 2011 as one half of the duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis . He later continued his solo career successfully.
Life
Haggerty grew up in Capitol Hill (a borough of Seattle ) and went there first to Garfield High School and later to Nathan Hale High School . He earned his bachelor's degree from Evergreen State College before taking a job in a juvenile prison. There he took part in a program called "Gateways" which focused on rap.
In 2000 Haggerty recorded the EP Open Your Eyes as "Professor Macklemore" and self-published it. In 2005 he deleted the professor from his name and released his first album entitled The Language of My World .
In the following years he became addicted to drug use. In addition to marijuana , he also consumed Purple Drank , a party drug widely used by rappers, which is a mixture of oxycontin - or codeine - containing cough syrup and lemonade. He named this as the reason for his “lack of productivity” during these years. After meeting Ryan Lewis as a producer, he recorded the Unplanned Mixtape and released it in September 2009. Songs like The Town and And We Danced became popular. The time and experiences of drug use (six of his friends died of overdoses) he processed in the song Otherside ; the title comes from the VS. EP and received good reviews overall.
The EP was Haggerty and the producer's first release under the joint name Macklemore & Ryan Lewis . In 2011 they had their breakthrough with the number 1 hit Can't Hold Us . Shortly afterwards, the re-released solo single And We Danced also hit the charts in some European countries such as Austria and Switzerland. Until 2016 they were mainly successful as a duo. The solo album Love Not War from 2015 received little attention despite the participation of Lewis, as did his guest contributions from other artists.
In January 2013, Haggerty got engaged to girlfriend Tricia Davis, with whom he had been dating for seven years. They had a daughter on May 29, 2015. Davis and Haggerty were married on June 27, 2015.
In early October 2016, Macklemore appeared in the MTV documentary Prescription for Change - Ending America's Opioid Crisis , which he co-produced with President Obama. The documentary addresses the opioid crisis in America, which Macklemore himself almost fell victim to. In addition, the song Drug Dealer was published, in which he criticized the doctors harshly and also addressed his own addiction. An emotional music video was also released on October 27th, showing the harsh reality of drug addiction.
In June 2017 he released the single Glorious with Skylar Gray as a guest. It was the first time since 2011 that Macklemore had another chart hit without Ryan Lewis. Good Old Days with Kesha as the singer was another international success and the pre-single for the solo album Gemini , which was released on September 22, 2017. The album built on the successes with Lewis, it reached number 2 in the US charts and top 10 positions in Europe. He was hit early in 2018 These Days of Rudimental involved. The song peaked at number 1 in the UK.
His second daughter and wife Davis were born on March 16, 2018.
Discography
For publications with Ryan Lewis see Macklemore & Ryan Lewis / Discography .
Albums
| year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 2017 | Gemini |
DE10 (5 weeks) DE |
AT6 (6 weeks) AT |
CH3 (6 weeks) CH |
UK13 (3 weeks) UK |
US2  (39 weeks)US |
First published: September 22, 2017
|
More albums
| year | title | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Open your eyes |
EP , first published: October 21, 2000 as "Professor Macklemore" |
| 2005 | The Language of My World | Album, first release: October 10, 2005 |
| 2009 | The Unplanned Mixtape | Mixtape EP, first released September 7, 2009 |
| 2015 | Love Not War | Mixtape, first published May 25, 2015 |
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
UK
|
US
|
|||
| 2011 | And We Danced The Unplanned Mixtape |
- |
AT4 (52 weeks) AT |
CH36 (26 weeks)CH |
- | - |
First published: October 31, 2011
feat. Ziggy Stardust |
| 2017 | Glorious Gemini |
DE15 (26 weeks) DE |
AT12 (28 weeks) AT |
CH17 (36 weeks) CH |
UK23 (16 weeks)UK |
US49  (19 weeks)US |
First published: June 15, 2017
feat. Skylar Gray |
| Marmalade Gemini |
- | - |
CH97 (1 week) CH |
- | - |
First published: July 26th 2017
feat. Lil Yachty |
|
|
Good Old Days Gemini |
DE50 (1 week) DE |
AT24 (6 weeks) AT |
CH24 (10 weeks) CH |
UK79 (9 weeks) UK |
US48 (20 weeks)US |
First published: September 19, 2017
feat. Kesha |
|
| 2019 | Shadow | - | - |
CH74 (1 week) CH |
- | - |
First published: August 16, 2019
feat. Iro |
| The following songs did not appear as single, but were made available for download and streaming through the album and were thus able to achieve a placement: | |||||||
| 2017 | Ain't Gonna The Tonight Gemini |
- |
AT73 (1 week) AT |
CH67 (1 week) CH |
- | - |
First published: September 22nd, 2017
feat. Eric Nally |
More singles
- 2005: Love Song (feat. Evan Roman)
- 2009: The Town
- 2016: Drug Dealer (feat. Ariana DeBoo)
- 2019: I Don't Belong in This Club (with Why Don't We , US:gold)
- 2019: It's Christmas Time (feat. Dan Caplen)
As a guest musician
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
DE
|
AT
|
CH
|
UK
|
US
|
|||
| 2018 | These Days Toast to Our Differences |
DE3 (33 weeks)DE |
AT1 (34 weeks)AT |
CH2 (49 weeks) CH |
UK1 × 3
(54 weeks)UK |
US- |
|
| 2019 | Summer Days |
DE24 (18 weeks) DE |
AT13 (21 weeks)AT |
CH22 (23 weeks) CH |
UK26th  (15 weeks)UK |
US100 (1 week)US |
|
Further guest contributions
- 2010: What They Came Here For (Suntonio Bandanaz feat.Macklemore)
- 2011: Letterhead (Remix) (Sapient feat.Illmaculate & Macklemore)
- 2015: Gold Rush (Clinton Sparks feat. 2 Chainz , Macklemore & DA)
- 2016: Rio (Remix) ( Netsky feat.Macklemore & Digital Farm Animals )
- 2016: FDT, Pt. 2 ( YG feat. G-Eazy & Macklemore)
- 2017: Free (Torii Wolf feat.Macklemore & DJ Premier )
- 2019: I Love Myself ( Ciara feat.Macklemore)
Awards for music sales
For publications with Ryan Lewis see Macklemore & Ryan Lewis / Music Sales Awards .
| Country / Region |
silver |
gold |
platinum |
 diamond
|
Sales | swell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources) |
||||||
 Australia (ARIA)
|
- |
2 × gold2
|
14 × platinum14th
|
- | 1,050,000 | aria.com.au |
 Belgium (BEA)
|
- |
gold1
|
2 × platinum2
|
- | 80,000 | ultratop.be |
 Denmark (IFPI)
|
- |
2 × gold2
|
2 × platinum2
|
- | 220,000 | ifpi.dk |
|
Germany (BVMI)
|
- | - |
platinum1
|
- | 400,000 | musikindustrie.de |
 France (SNEP)
|
- |
gold1
|
platinum1
|
2 × diamond2
|
833,333 | infodisc.fr snepmusique.com |
 Italy (FIMI)
|
- |
4 × gold4th
|
5 × platinum5
|
- | 350,000 | fimi.it |
 Canada (MC)
|
- |
gold1
|
5 × platinum5
|
- | 440,000 | musiccanada.com |
 Mexico (AMPROFON)
|
- | - |
platinum1
|
- | 60,000 | amprofon.com.mx |
 New Zealand (RMNZ)
|
- |
gold1
|
2 × platinum2
|
- | 75,000 | nztop40.co.nz |
 Netherlands (NVPI)
|
- |
gold1
|
- | - | 20,000 | nvpi.nl |
|
Austria (IFPI)
|
- |
gold1
|
platinum1
|
- | 45,000 | ifpi.at |
 Poland (ZPAV)
|
- |
gold1
|
3 × platinum3
|
- | 70,000 | bestsellery.zpav.pl |
 Spain (Promusicae)
|
- | - |
platinum1
|
- | 40,000 | elportaldemusica.es |
|
Switzerland (IFPI)
|
- |
gold1
|
- | - | 15,000 | hitparade.ch |
|
United States (RIAA)
|
- |
3 × gold3
|
3 × platinum3
|
- | 4,500,000 | riaa.com |
|
United Kingdom (BPI)
|
silver1
|
gold1
|
3 × platinum3
|
- | 2,400,000 | bpi.co.uk |
| All in all |
silver1
|
20 × gold20th
|
44 × platinum44
|
2 × diamond2
|
||
Web links
- Macklemore.com
- Macklemore on last.fm
- Macklemore at Discogs (English)
swell
- ↑ Seattle rapper Macklemore ready to take a shot at pop stardom (English)
- ↑ youtube.com
- ↑ Macklemore: He's a dad - and married . In: GALA . August 6, 2015 ( gala.de [accessed December 4, 2018]).
- ↑ twitter.com
- ↑ This is how his second child was born . In: stern.de . May 14, 2018 ( stern.de [accessed December 4, 2018]).
- ↑ a b c Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
- ↑ Love not was at fnac, accessed on December 1, 2019
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Macklemore |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Haggerty, Ben (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | US-American rapper |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 19, 1983 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Seattle , Washington , United States |