Macklemore may be getting “back to the basics” on his own music, but when he teamed up with Fences for “Arrows,” his verse was anything but basic.
The “Thrift Shop” rapper hooked up with his old friend, Seattle artist Chris Mansfield (a.k.a. Fences), for the collaboration, which was produced by Ryan Lewis. It didn’t seem like Chris, who co-wrote the track “Ten Thousand Hours” for Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ debut album, The Heist, had to do much convincing to get the hip-hop star to lend him a couple verses — all it took was a simple phone call.
“I called him on my cell phone — I think you were coming back from a water park or something — and he said ‘yeah,’” Fences said backstage at the iHeartRadio Music Festival. “So, we did it.”
And the rest is history. Macklemore gets open and honest on his verses on the song, rapping about the downfalls of fame and getting “blinded by this limelight.”
“I was really nervous,” Fences said about hearing Macklemore’s raps for the first time. “And I put my computer by my window in Brooklyn and I lit a cigarette and I listened all nervous, and I was like, ‘Oh my god’ — I almost cried. It was so good because he said a lot of things, powerful stuff.”
And it doesn’t look like Macklemore, who wrote the first verse of the song back in December of last year, has come to terms with his battle with fame. At iHeartRadio, he told MTV News that he still feels very much in that headspace.
“I think a lot of it is still relevant,” he said. “Because I wrote the second verse later than that, and I think a lot of it is still there, it might be for awhile.”
Christina Garibaldi
Christina Garibaldi has been an on-camera reporter for MTV News since 2011. When not interviewing or writing about her favorite stars, she keeps herself busy with baby animal videos and boy bands.
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