Macklemore has made headlines recently for his Grammy-sweeping results in all of the Hip Hop categories. In a recent interview on DJ Whoo Kids “Whoolywood Shuffle,” Talib Kweli recalled meeting the Seattle emcee for the first time.
“I met Macklemore at the [XXL] Freshmen show he did at Best Buy,” said Kweli. “It was MGK, Danny Brown, Future… To me, Macklemore did the best that night. I had heard the name, but I’d never seen him perform. Then I went to Seattle a year later, this was when ‘Thrift Shop’ was about to pop, I did a show, and he was in the audience, and I was like, ‘Alright, come on stage and rap.’ And he did real good.”
Kweli continued, explaining how the two ended up on tour together. “So then, when I changed agencies, I got with the same agency as them right as their records was blowin’ up, and he was doing interviews talkin’ about his favorite album was me and Hi-Tek’s album… So I hit my agent up, that tour would make a lot of sense for me. That’s the only tour that sold out in the country Hip Hop-wise. These other tours, God bless them, but they wasn’t sellin’ out.”
Kweli also spoke on how he came to have Jay Z featured on his “Get By Remix,” which featured one of Kanye West’s earlier productions. “I had met Jay at Lincoln Center. He was doing shows with The Roots… He had a two-way pager, and he had given me his two-way pin number. And I hit him on the two-way, and I’m like, ‘I got this record,’ this was before ‘Get By’ was even a single. I had this shit planed out. I was like, ‘I want you to get on this remix.’ And for three months, he would be like, ‘I’m on it. I’m on it.’ …and then I got a two-way back, he was like, ‘Send me your email.’ I sent him my email, and five minutes later, the verse was in my email.”
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Watch the interview below:
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