Macklemore Takes A Behind-The-Scenes Look At The Making Of 'Thrift Shop'

03-27-2023

Video promo

(Big Hassle) Seattle rapper Macklemore takes fans behind the scenes of the official music video for Grammy-winning single "Thrift Shop," from his debut album The Heist in the latest installment of Vevo Footnotes, premiering today. The exclusive content is part of Vevo's celebration to honor the historic 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop. Previously, Macklemore has worked with Vevo on a series of Ctrl performances of "GRIME," "TAIL LIGHTS" and "HEROES."

During the episode, Mackelmore discusses the challenges he and Ryan Lewis faced while creating the song, but highlights the simplicity and magic that ultimately resulted. He emphasizes the song's anti-flex message and notes how it stood out and sounded different from other music at that time. Macklemore also describes the fantastic experience he had filming the music video, which involved visiting multiple thrift shops and vintage stores. He reveals that they invited fellow Seattle artist and featured artist WANZ to participate in the video just two hours prior to shooting, and that they found his now-iconic pink suit at Leroy's, a renowned thrift shop in Seattle. Overall, Macklemore stresses the importance of having fun and staying true to oneself, rather than following the crowd and spending all your money.

Below is a complete outline of "Thrift Shop" I Vevo Footnotes:

00:13 - The message I was trying to send with 'Thrift Shop' is just don't be a f***boy and think that a logo is going to make you cool. There are finds out there. There are treasures. There are amazing ways that you could freak fashion and be an individual and we don't need to get caught up spending all this money. Save it, go to the thrift shop.

01:01 - We had a lot of fun. We went to multiple thrift shops, goodwills, vintage stores. We turned them out. I got in the goodwill bins. That was crazy. I jumped on couches. I had a scooter. We had a fantastic time.

01:31 - 'Thrift Shop' sounded nothing like anything that was out at the moment. I think that, from a perspective that no one was really talking about, almost like the anti-flex or like don't follow the crowd type of thing, and I think that it hit at the right time and it hopefully, puts a stamp on having fun and being yourself and not having to follow anybody else.

02:00 - There's magic in the simplicity of it. And it's also not simple at all. That was one of the hardest songs that we ever made in terms of the production and getting it right. And then the hook is like one of the catchiest hooks ever, it gets stuck in your head, everyone sings 'this is f***ing awesome.' You package that all together, it worked.

02:58 - I don't know if it's an easter egg but we found WANZ' suit. We hit WANZ the day we were filming the video and were like, 'yo you should be in this, can you come in like 2 hours' and so he faked sick at his tech job, came to the video. We bought the suit that day from Leroy's. Shoutout Leroy's, downtown Seattle, and that suit that he is in, that iconic suit, that has been scene well over 1 billion times at this point, was purchased that day. Watch the BTS video below: