![]() “That’s part of my job and I do have a disease where it’s going to be important that I stay grounded and spiritually connected and focused. It’s always going to be a little bit harder when you make an album where you put your heart out to the world, you become more vulnerable. With Macklemore and Lewis back on the hamster wheel of promotion and touring (including Australia later this year), Haggerty is prepared for his sobriety to be tested. This Unruly Mess I’ve Made also includes contributions from neo-soul crooner Leon Bridges, Chicago’s Chance the Rapper and a posse of old-school New York hip-hop legends - Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee and Grandmaster Caz on mega hit Downtown and KRS-One and DJ Premier on follow-up single Buckshot. The new album features Growing Up, a collaboration with Ed Sheeran that Haggerty wrote before his daughter Sloane was born in May last year. The wake-up call came in late 2014 when his partner Tricia Davis told him they were expecting their first child. “There was no way to really prepare for what fame looked like,” he says. He began taking sleeping pills and smoking marijuana to relax. ![]() The touring, promotion, travel and constant demands on his time became too much. Haggerty says the success of the singles Thrift Shop and Same Love, which both topped the Australian charts, and multi-platinum album The Heist “overwhelmed” him. The rapper went into rehab in 2008, about the time he teamed up with Lewis, and recently revealed a relapse in 2014. It was important for me to talk about that on the record.” “I’ve had my own struggles with prescription medication. I’ve lost six people in my life over pharmaceutical death, over pain medication. “It’s quicker to just take a pill and what it’s doing is creating a nation that has become dependent. “Prescription medication is the easy way out in our culture and our system is set up where doctors are given financial incentives if they prescribe more drugs,” the hitmaker says. Haggerty, who has a history of alcohol and drug-abuse problems, revisits his drinking problem on St Ides (named after a brand of liquor) and over-the-counter drugs on Kevin. White Privilege II isn’t the only song exploring heavy topics on an album also featuring ditties about dance- offs, fried food and Brad Pitt’s ugly cousin. “It’s never going to be pretty but it’s necessary,” Haggerty says. “I don’t imagine it will ever be played on radio,” the 32-year-old says of a song designed to start discussions about race and opportunity among his mostly white fan base. The “audio play” is a sequel to White Privilege, a track on 2005 Macklemore album The Language of My World, which focused on the white appropriation of a once predominantly black art-form of hip-hop. ![]() Haggerty “unpacked” issues raised by the Black Lives Matter social movement via lengthy dialogue with activists, artists and teachers in Seattle and beyond to create the near nine minutes of White Privilege II. “It’s a lot harder to examine race in 2016 and where we’re at in a country whose very fabric has been built on oppression. “It’s a lot easier to say ‘Everyone should have the right to get married’,” Haggerty says during a break shooting a music video in Seattle. ![]()
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