In his new video "Wings" with collaborator DJ Ryan Lewis, Seattle rapper Macklemore has an earnest chat with his fans about America’s addiction to labels—backed by a middle school children’s choir and a strings section. "Look at what that swoosh did!" he says, rapping about the loss of a childhood friend who was killed for his Air Jordans / Starter jacket.

"When I first started writing "Wings," I didn’t really have the right idea," Macklemore said in a release. "Am I writing it like, ’I’m so cool, I have all of these Jordan’s?’ Am I writing about Nike and an anti-Nike song? In reality, it’s neither one of those, it’s just about sharing a fresh perspective."

Find out more about the history of Seattle’s rising hip-hop scene in our June article Let’s Start the Show.