The Heist
The Heist is one of the year’s big sleeper hits: an indie hip-hop album from a Seattle rapper, Macklemore, and beatmaker, Ryan Lewis, that debuted at Number Two on the Billboard 200. The record has its charms (the single “Thrift Shop,” a cheeky ode to second-hand duds) and its virtues (the marriage-equality anthem “Same Love”). Unfortunately, Macklemore’s virtuousness overwhelms his far more modest charms: whether name-dropping Malcolm Gladwell and touting his work ethic or boasting about his indie bona fides, the dude’s self-righteousness tests, and, eventually, exhausts, your patience. A pity, because his partner’s beats are playful and inventive.
Listen to ‘The Heist’: