Reddit Welcomes Macklemore & Ryan Lewis With Open Arms
Posted by Lindsey Scully 
Photo credit: David Yousling
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis participate in Reddit “Ask Me Anything.”
The local duo has long been on Reddit’s radar, the self-appointed “front page of the Internet” site where fans constantly submit and share Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ Youtube videos among countless other news story links and kitten pictures. The day the “Thrift Shop” video was released it was submitted to Reddit by users over 40 different times, with one submission making it to the front page of Reddit which has literally tens of thousands of viewers at any given time. So when multiple users started requesting the duo for an AMA, it meant other big things are coming for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
AMA is short for “Ask Me Anything”, where users can ask a question in a forum-type setting and the AMA guest can pick and choose which to answer. The AMA subreddit made headlines recently when our own President Obama took a turn behind the monitor to answer some questions. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis received hundreds – if not thousands – of questions in the one hour of their AMA. Questions varied from serious to humorous, ranging between what vocal chain equipment Ryan uses to where Macklemore scored his Batman foot pajamas used in “Thrift Shop” video. User Prophetoffun asked, “When did you fully realize that you had hit it big?” with which they responded, “When we got asked to do an AMA lol.” Macklemore went into detail about his substance addiction with SSG in our recent sit-down interview and was just as open about it on Reddit. Many who had either just came out to their family or had previous addictions poured their hearts out to the duo and what their music has meant to them.
With the release of their debut full-length The Heist hitting the same moment as the AMA last night, NPR streaming the new album online last week, and the “Same Love” video release all in the same time it is has been quite an eventful few weeks for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. Ryan responded to a question regarding what they did in their free time, “Free time? lol. I have NONE.” They describe in the AMA how hard it was watching friends go to shows and having fun while they are in the studio working, it just shows what their dedication level is.
Seattle’s local hip-hop duo has been upgraded to a national status. The Heist hit iTunes at 9:00pm last night and within two hours of it being released had bypassed Mumford & Sons and became the number one album on iTunes. This is huge for not only Seattle pride but the fact that The Heist is an independent album, there are no corporate pockets behind the duo nor deep wallets to shell out multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. The Heist and the story of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis is completely grassroots.
When asked what song they wished everyone would hear off the album, their response was “‘Same Love’.Out of all the songs on our album, it addresses one of the most important issues in society right now.” The video was released almost a week ago and has gone viral, totaling just shy of three million views while raising awareness and funds for Referendum 74.
To view the entire Reditt AMA with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis click here.
