TRACKS W/ CLASS | Macklemore – The End

Could be a follow up to the former Aurally Audacious Endeavours, could be an accompaniment, could be its own thing.

Tracks W/ Class points out tracks that you should be listening to, and would benefit your musical experience and hopefully bring you into another territory of music that you wouldn’t have journeyed into otherwise. If you have, then good job.

If not, then let’s start with Macklemore.

THE ARTIST

The Seattle rapper has been traversing the mid-fame rap scene and especially around hip-hop blogospheres. While he’s a star in his hometown, he only recently did some concerts north of the border, and I hope his fanbase grows because he offers something that most other rappers don’t offer: meaning.

Mainstream hip-hop has depressingly become easy to decipher into three categories of subject matter: drugs, money, and getting women. That’s not even a stereotype, probably any producer will tell an artist that to reach Top 40 charts, you’d have to manufacture a bubble-gum beat and throw two or three lines of lyrics about any of the above, and repeat until squeaky clean.

What does Macklemore do? He tells stories about drug addiction; succumbing to it, overcoming it, suffering because of it, losing loved ones due to it. And that’s just one song. Pride for his heritage, the dangers of consumerism, tributes to his favourite role models—things that can’t be described in one word, dominate his collaboration work with The Vs. EP with producer Ryan Lewis, who offers some incredible instrumental backing to support Mack’s rhymes.

THE TRACK

This EP ends with “The End”, a slow and sombre finisher for a diverse and emotionally wearing experience with Mack’s subject matter changing between golden highs (“Irish Celebration”) and disturbing lows (“Otherside”).

“The End” presents a simple story: it’s prom night and there’s The Girl. The quintessential teenage story—fight or flight to get that dream of having her.

But Mack’s lines prove an astounding depth to this story—it’s so unabashedly introspective, it’s like looking into the innermost feelings for a young boy and laying them out on the table while overwhelming love and longing comes over him.

I got chills by the third line. When I closed my eyes and listened to this track, Mack laid out the imagery, the setting, and the characters in a few seconds to give me a full picture. Most rappers can’t do that.

And it really is telling a story—Mack raps through the two characters. The girl says this, and the boy responds with that. Some of my favourite lines show a surreal and dreamy feel to an all-to-relatable experience:

“You whispered, ‘Don’t you love music / It’s such a gift, and I’ll give it to ya’"

It’s a back and forth between doubt and bliss (“My God, seconds away from God, Yes"), consuming hope and crippling loss. Going through this song is like having a little movie move through your mind and leave you wanting more. Mack pieces together his storytelling so deliberately because he knows this subject matter attaches to it’s listeners. It’s all about universal feeling.

Not to mention Ryan Lewis’ choice of instrumentals. Crying violins and defeated, softly blown horns surround the ‘dance floor’ of this prom night. They express the emotions our characters are feeling. A sombre piano backing track binds it all together to create a slow, steady descent into the thoughts and feelings of what might very well be our past selves.

It’s a study on the state of love, having to grow up and lose what you thought was your entire world. You don’t know if the devastation is physical or emotional:

“Not letting go, but I can’t hold on / Fading through my fingertips, watching us fall / I try to catch you with my arms”

This song comes full circle—it forces thought, and it questions your most significant questions you could be posed with, if only for a moment.

TAKEAWAY:

I’ve had this track on repeat for like three days. It can become addicting, but it’s good to begin actually feeling things from music again. Macklemore is an expert lyricist and musical storyteller, and Ryan Lewis knows his rhymes so intimately he matches them with his instrumentals like a puzzle piece. There’s plenty of tracks off of The Vs. EP that are evidence of that, but “The End” is a great way to finish it.

It’s poignant, it’s honest, and it plays with your emotions. All the best songs do.

Want more Macklemore? One of his newer tracks, “Wings” is complex as ever.