The Seattle natives released the first official track from their sophomore album earlier this morning. "Downtown" features hip hop legends Grandmaster Caz, Kool Moe Dee, Melle Mel, and singer Eric Nally.

The Best Rap Album GRAMMY Award winners will perform "Downtown" live for the very first time at Sunday's MTV Video Music Awards. 97.1 Amp Radio morning show host Carson Daly chatted with the duo to get the scoop on their latest single, forthcoming album, and their upcoming VMA performance.

Carson Daly: Tell me a little bit about the single "Downtown."

Macklemore: It is a record that kind of pays homage to the late 70's, early 80's and what was going on in hip-hop, and what was going simultaneously in rock music, and melding the two worlds together in one record. We have Kool Moe Dee, Melle Mel, Grandmaster Caz, and Eric Nally on it and we're really excited about it. We've been working on the record for about a year and a half, so this is the day. This is the world premiere.

Carson Daly: Obviously so much, Macklemore, in your life has changed. How did that influence the new sound of the record?

Macklemore: Man, a lot has changed! I would say that I'm someone who's always trying to pick from life experiences that are happening and putting that into the music and this was one of those times. After The Heist, there was so much, kind of a whirlwind going on for a year and a half, two years. It was a time I didn't really know what to write about. You know, it was just a hotel room after a hotel room and a flight after a flight and shows, so we had to take a little bit of a break and kind of figure out what we wanted to say, what I wanted to say, what kind of textures Ryan wanted to use, and where we wanted to take it creatively because when you're kind of in the thick of it and just going on autopilot every day, it's tough to really be in a state of creativity.

And then obviously, I had a child. I had a child three months ago, which has changed my life completely. It just kind of puts everything in perspective and that's where I'm at right now. We still have a little bit to finish up on the album, but we're pretty much there. Read the rest of the interview - here.

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