“Like the ceiling can’t hold us”, indeed.

The Outdoor Retailer Winter Market is essentially the Super Bowl of winter gear for the outdoor enthusiast - it’s where all of the top retailers showcase their newest and sweetest gear for skiing, snowboarding, backpacking, and just about anything else you could imagine doing in the great outdoors. But gear isn’t the only story at OR - for those of us lucky enough to attend, there are events like Wolverine’s Rock the Outdoors concert featuring one of my favorite acts, rap duo Macklemore (aka Ben Haggerty) and Ryan Lewis, whose single Thrift Shop went quadruple platinum last week.

After enduring 15 hours of flight delays to get to Salt Lake City, they put on a monster show at the Depot. It was like watching someone live out his dream in real time. Afterwards, Ben and Ryan  sat down with Ali Carr Troxell and I for a quick Q&A about their music, their wardrobe, and Macklemore’s professional kneeboarding career. We wrote it up for the OR Daily Magazine (here’s the digital version), but here are some interesting bits that didn’t make it into to article.

photo by Chris Hunter @ hunterimagery.com

Ben didn’t get into the music program at College of Santa Fe. Things seem to have worked out, regardless.

“I went to a college called College of Santa Fe…I tried to study music there, but I didn’t get into the music program.” -Ben Haggerty

On not outgrowing thrift shops:

“I get rid of stuff all the time…right before I left, I went to the Goodwill and dropped some stuff off. I’m always bringing stuff back, buying stuff, dropping stuff off. All that stuff [clothes from the Thrift Shop video] was stuff from my closet.” -BH

photo by Chris Hunter @ hunterimagery.com

On writing about subjects that are taboo in the hip hop community (overcoming addiction, denouncing homophobia and excessive consumerism):

“I never set out to rap about things that no one raps about…it’s not trying, it’s just being myself.” -BH

On why it’s important to use your voice as an artist:

“It’s an important right as an artist to stick up for people who don’t have a voice. And gay people definitely have a voice, absolutely, but it’s a voice that isn’t respected within the hip hop community. And I felt that [Same Love] was a song that I wanted to write as a way to speak to my peers.” -BH

photo by Chris Hunter @ hunterimagery.com

The question that they’re sick of answering:

“‘How did you guys meet?’ MySpace (-ed. note: Seriously, they met through MySpace). To me it’s always an indication that it might be an interview full of questions that we’ve already heard…and it could be an indication that it’s somebody that doesn’t really know a lot about us.” -Ryan Lewis

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It’s also worth noting that Ben and Ryan were honest and open, passionate about their craft, and seemed to genuinely appreciate us taking the time to meet them, even though they had every right to be surly for having to deal with journalists after spending half the day dealing with airport delays, then blowing the roof off of the Depot. Whether or not you’re a fan of their music, you’ve got to be a fan of the guys behind it.