(mouth popping)
(Macklemore humming)
♪ Somethin', Somethin', Somethin' ♪
Because I'm a (mumbles)
I sound like a (beep) Muppet.
Hello, I'm Macklemore
and I am going to play a game of Song Association with Elle.
All right, this is how it works.
I'ma get a word.
I have 10 seconds to think of a song that uses that word
and then I gotta sing or rap the song.
I think that I will be trash at this game
but I'm gonna try.
Before we get into the game
make sure you check out "Maniac", my new single.
- Ooh.
Ooh.
Good.
- Billie.
(clock ticking)
Billy Jean (dings)
Is not my love.
I learned this when I was such a small child
and I definitely don't know the right lyrics.
Billy Jean is not my love.
She's just a girl who thinks that I am the one.
Billy Jean. Michael Jackson. Final answer.
Didn't have to phone a friend.
Single.
(Macklemore sighs)
Single...
(clock ticking)
Mmm,
Beyonce.
All the single ladies. (bell dings)
The "oh oh oh oh". That (beep) was a bop though.
I could dance better than I could talk it.
Kissed.
(clock ticking) Does Seal say "kissed"?
♪ Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey ♪
Kissed from a rose on a grave.
Man.
Seal.
Wasn't he married to Heidi Klum?
Which is crazy.
Power Couple. Mm.
Thrift.
♪ Walk into the club like, what up? ♪
♪ I got a big (beep) ♪
♪ Nah, I'm just pumped. ♪
♪ I bought some (beep) from a thrift shop ♪
(dings) Bold way to start a song
and it's still trips me out
that, like, there's just six year olds
that are just like,
"Walk into the club. Like, what up? I got a big,"
like, what?
How was that the one that went-
Like that is crazy.
River.
(clock ticking) "Cry Me a River".
Justin Timberlake.
♪ Cry me a river ♪
(Macklemore humming "Cry Me a River" by Justin Timberlake)
With Timberland in the background.
He was always (imitating Timberland).
Timberland made the beat? That's a slapper.
That is a slapper.
"Cry Me a River" is the hook
and there's some more words in there
but that was like really the glue of what kept that record
together was that "Cry Me a River" part.
That (beep) was important.
Chant.
I have a song called "Chant".
I don't know if there's any lyrics in the song
that say "chant"
but we named it that.
Final answer. I think that counts.
♪ They told me that I banished ♪
♪ They told me that I had it ♪
♪ They told me that I'm gone ♪
♪ I told them, don't panic ♪
♪ When you've done it this long ♪
♪ And you've seen magic ♪
♪ And you know it won't kill you ♪
♪ Even when the whole world doubts it ♪
Sometimes you make a beat
and you're like this beat is called "Chant".
Has nothing to do with the song necessarily
and then when it comes time,
years later to actually put the record out,
you're like, the song is called "Chant".
I hear a beat or a melody.
It can be, you know, something on the piano,
it could be a horn line, it could be a guitar riff,
that evokes emotion in me.
And then my job is to paint the picture.
I think it's the process of creating in the studio
and being completely free
and not thinking about, you know, the outside world.
And of course like those thoughts come in.
Like, I'll be writing a record
and halfway through I'm like
"Oh, this is gonna hit in the club", you know, or whatever.
I like to bring it back to, like, be here now
and don't get caught up in, like,
what the rest of the world how they're gonna react to it.
Then I get away from the present moment.
The present moment is where the magic is.
That process is for me.
And then eventually it becomes something
that you release into the world
and it becomes a world that's not yours anymore.
It's not your possession, it's the world at that point.
Wire.
"Through the Wire" has a "wire" in it.
There's a "wire" in it.
"Through the Wire".
The wire through the whole thing
is that there's the word "wire".
Kanye. "Through the Wire".
♪ Through the wire ♪
(Macklemore humming "Through the Wire" by Kanye West)
I never knew the words.
(Macklemore humming "Through the Wire" by Kanye West)
It was a very like rock ballad-esque like hook.
If you really listen to it just for the melody.
Is that a John Bonjovi sample?
Like think about John Bonjovi singing that (beep).
If he was just in, like, really form fitting denim.
Knock.
"It's a Hard Knock Life." Jay-Z.
♪ It's a hard knock life for us ♪
♪ Instead of drinking we get- ♪
I mean great sample from "Annie". Musical.
And a lot of people don't know
I was actually in "Annie" when I was a kid.
That was a really bad experience for me.
Give me a second. (laughs softly)
I wasn't in "Annie". Oh, I couldn't act as a child.
I got cut. I wasn't good enough to make "Aladin".
I didn't make "Beauty in the Beast".
"Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe",
didn't make that one either.
"Hard Knock Life".
"Annie".
Criminal.
I mean I think of Criminal Minded,
which is, which is a album.
Eminem has a song called "Criminal".
♪ I'm a Criminal ♪
(Macklemore humming)
(Macklemore laughing)
That's the hook.
That's how the hook goes.
I mean between, he does have a song called "Criminal".
There is also an album called "Criminal Minded" by KRS One.
If you combine those two
and not really knowing how the lyrics work
that's a correct answer.
Maniac.
♪ And I'm a maniac ♪
That's my record, "Maniac".
♪ I don't want a dance with the Maniac ♪
♪ 'Cause the moment we touch ♪
I sound like a (beep) Muppet.
Yo, I don't sing the hooks, okay?
It's not my thing but "Maniac" is my song.
That collaboration came from Ryan
playing me a bunch of music in his car in LA.
He played me that hook and he was like,
"Yeah, Windsor doesn't even want this."
And I was like,
"I know a guy that would take that hook gladly."
The rest is history.
It's about that relationship that is toxic
to a certain extent,
but you still love that person.
You're both equally parts crazy
but that love brings you back together.
It's a love song.
Stars.
(clock ticking) Everyone has songs about stars
but then when you're under the pressure of the timer
the stars shine bright like a diamond.
Rihanna. That's not the words.
(buzzer rings)
(Macklemore softly laughing)
Yo, shout out Ri-Ri, man.
We need some new music
and if you could make that about stars
that would be dope.
All right. Didn't get that.
Not even close.
Fire.
I went through the fire, I saw the devil.
I came back home, slept with Darrell.
Alicia Keys. "Fire".
♪ This girl is on fire ♪
(bell dings)
Yeah, that. That's a great record. That's a powerful ballad.
They don't teach you how to do that at NYU Music School.
Courvoisier.
♪ Tell him what we gonna do ♪
♪ Pass the Courvoisier ♪
♪ Everybody's say it now ♪
♪ Pass the Courvoisier ♪
(Macklemore humming)
♪ Pass the Courvoisier ♪
That was Busta Rhymes, Puff,
was Mystikal in that song?
No, he wanted to be. It didn't make it.
They cut his verse probably.
Yeah. "Pass the Courvoisier".
That was the cut.
Early thousands. (sighs)
What a era.
Baby.
The first thing that comes up is Lil Wayne.
I mean, there's just so many "baby" bars from Lil Wayne.
♪ Please say the mother (beep) Baby ♪
♪ You gotta know that I'm just out here ♪
♪ Doing what I gotta do for me and you and we eat ♪
♪ And so (beep) why the (beep) is you trippin' ♪
♪ I'm taking my chances, my head to the sky ♪
♪ Money to the ground ♪
(Macklemore humming)
Yeah. "Hustler Music", off the Carter II.
"Hustler Music". He says, "baby".
Sometimes it's a journey to get to the final answer.
Glorious.
♪ I feel glorious ♪
♪ Glorious ♪
♪ Got a chance to start again ♪
♪ I was born with this ♪
♪ Born for this ♪
Yeah, that's me and Skylar Gray. It's "Glorious".
The song that I am the most proud of?
Mm. It's like picking kids, man.
And I think for different reasons
you love your kids at different moments throughout the day.
I would say the songs that come up for me
would be "Other Side"
and what that did in terms of
talking about the disease of addiction.
I had just got outta treatment
and it was kind of that turning point of, like,
do I talk about this?
Do I not talk about this?
And I ended up speaking up
and had no real fan base at the time
and people would come up at my shows with 30 people
and 12 of them would come up and be like,
"Yo, that song changed my life."
And I think that whenever you hear
that type of feedback it means a lot.
And I think the "Other Side" is up there.
"Same Love" is another one, of course.
It was important moment around equality
to be able to do that in a time where
we weren't as accepting in America as we are now.
We obviously have a long way to go.
It was a big moment and to be able to do that,
like, on the Grammys
and to be able to perform that all over the world
and have that message get out there.
That's another one.
♪ We press play, don't press pause ♪
♪ Progress, march on ♪
♪ With a veil over our eyes ♪
♪ Turn our back on the cause ♪
♪ Until the day that my uncles can be united by law ♪
♪ Kids are walkin' around the hallway ♪
♪ Plagued by pain in their heart ♪
♪ A world so hateful ♪
♪ Some would rather die than be who they are ♪
♪ And a certificate on paper ♪
♪ Isn't gonna solve it all ♪
♪ But it's a damn good place to start ♪
I, like, gave myself W's when they were definitely L's.
I declared myself the winner when I shouldn't have.
You know what song I love?
(Macklemore humming)
♪ Once there was this girl who ♪
♪ Got into an accident ♪
And couldn't come to school
Yo, the fact that that song, like, popped.
Like, that was like a top five billboard record.
Like, what Programmer was like,
"Yo, that Mmm Mmm Mmm song
that that dude from, like, Rhode Island's
playing in the dive bars,
like, we need to press the button on that record,"?
But here we are probably 25 years later
and that's the song that I decided to sing.
So, he was doing something right.
Shout out to the Crash Test Dummies.
I love you guys and I miss you. Hit me.
(upbeat funky music plays)