Macklemore and Ryan Lewis Return with the Paternal “Growing Up (Sloane’s Song)”

Macklemore is backlemore. For the first time since dropping The Heist in 2012, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have released new music. Featuring a chorus sung by pop songwriter superstar Ed Sheeran, “Growing Up (Sloane’s Song)” finds Macklemore lyrically wrestling with his new responsibility as a father (with the unspoken undercurrent of trying to be a good man in the wake of his relapse in 2014). It’s a personal reflection peppered with advice ranging from “do yoga” and “study David Bowie, James Baldwin, and Tupac” to “listen to your teachers, but cheat in calculus” and “read Langston Hughes, I suggest The Raisin in the Sun” (not the smoothest flow on that one, but still). The song can be downloaded for free at growingupsong.com.

It’s hard to imagine that reserved, soft tone of “Growing Up (Sloane’s Song)” will be indicative of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s upcoming new album, which is due later this year. The one takeaway? Expect a lot more big name guest vocalists on the new record. One of the charms of The Heist was the way it crafted a Seattle sound by employing local songwriters to sing the choruses, but it only makes commercial sense that the duo would tap into its peer group of famous friends like Sheeran to give the new songs even broader appeal.