Macklemore

I'm not more or less conscious than any other rapper out there.

Consciousness rap - a term that I don't think exactly exists but gets thrown around a lot - is not exactly popular.

I'm a very conceptual writer.

I'm as honest as I can be.

Music is therapy. Music moves people. It connects people in ways that no other medium can. It pulls heart strings. It acts as medicine.

The fame and the money and all that stuff that comes along with it is all great, but that's not the sole purpose of why I make music.

Do you want to live life, or do you want to escape life?

I'm someone that examines culture and tries to break down why things are the way that they are whether its hip-hop music, sex, race, or consumerism. I try to examine it and scrutinize it to the point where I can write a song.

There's this tendency to be like, 'Where's the negative stuff? How valid is the criticism?' But honestly, what people think of me is none of my business. If I live on the Internet looking for public approval, I'm going to be miserable.

I find that when I put my spiritual life first, the rest of my life is easy. When I put my career first, that's when I have problems.

The question is, What type of human do I want to be? How do I want to use my platform? Do I want to be safe, under the umbrella of my white privilege? Or do I want to push back and resist?

It's easier, as a white person, to be silent about racial injustice. It's easier. On paper. But it's not easier on the whole, because injustice affects all of us, whether we know it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not.