TRAINWRECKORDS: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s “This Unruly Mess I’ve Made”
Macklemore feels very, very bad, and it’s all your fault.
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Additional writing by: Kevin Anderson https://bsky.app/profile/kbandersonyo.bsky.social
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@DocLabad
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Dude the part where you say looking back at 2014 “makes you feel like your on crazy pills” and then you show a bunch of headlines blew me away. WTF!?!?? I feel this in a deep and profound way. Goddamn.
@StevenPaddockDidNotActAlone
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
29:37 This feels like an old CumTown bit and I’m here for it.
@dinomoviesnstuff
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
He is a communist? fook him
@Wyrrlicci
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Mack is the only MF alive to cuck himself with those texts.
@redRadiationInc
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Kendrick’s debut was section 80.. please check this stuff
@LBAD-Failure
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Chinese democracy?
@vincentroberts8327
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
"I didn't start taking this job seriously until about two years ago" is absolutely hilarious as a longtime fan.
@Jaknife101
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Great stuff as always!
Also…I'm sure you get requests in the comments of every video for all of your different series to cover anything and everything but…this has been nagging me for awhile so I might as well shoot my shot as I genuinely think it would be an interesting episode of Trainwreckords…
I say this as someone whose favorite band of all time is Rise Against…please consider covering Ricochet by them. The amount of discourse and narrative behind whatever the heck happened I would just adore seeing elaborated on in an episode of this series. I don't even whole heartedly hate it or anything, however I do agree that it's by far their most bizarre album to date and definitely the weakest song wise. I've seen it touted as "their St. Anger" which is what brought me to this idea in the first place.
Anyway, keep on being awesome, love your stuff.
@STR8H8MUSIC
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
SPIDER MAN 3 IS BASED ASF, YOURE NOT ALONE TODD
@Hettmar
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
So basically people just love to be offended over anything, regardless if it's worth being offended over.
@juliabodiford1600
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
There has to be more respect on ERIC NALLY’S name!!
So good as always. Always have a love for Macklemore, flaws and all, in a way I can’t explain but you summed up pretty well.
@TheDoctorProfessor
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Macklemore proved that no matter how woke you are, you're never woke enough
@browngirlinaclownworld2077
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Ahhh, the Obama era. Back when there was a such thing as a slow news day.
@mounthappy747
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Shocking that the preachy, virtue-signaling didn't go over with the audience. Nobody wants to hear it.
@nicjkov
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
True story: I have this album cover tattoo'd on my arm. It's a message about ego and controlling what you can. "Kevin" touched me in a way music hadn't before, or maybe in a way I hadn't let it. Macklemore may be cringe at times but I never, even for a minute have thought he didn't mean everything he said. From same love, to hinds hall. "Same Love" came out when I was coming to terms with my fucked up catholic upbringing and my brothers coming out. I'll never have a bad word to say about this man. Ethically I feel confident 10 years removed that he is one of the more ethically and morally centered people we have given the 15 mins of fame to.
@herecomethepretzels
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Can't Hold Us is a banger and it's forever connected to the memory of the Seahawks first Super Bowl win. They even gave him a ring!
@RodriTheMighty
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Sooo, no mention of him in a hook nose and payots as a hateful mockery of jews?
@YoWhattup
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
A walking "Love is Love" yard sign is one of the most prescient, hilarious, apt things i've heard in a long time
@PaulTrisnan
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Oh Benjamin. Agree or disagree you were too sincere and too honest and kind for this business. His honesty and integrity should have been appreciated
@salivatinggreed4219
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
13:23 I'm gay and when gay marriage became legal I attributed it all to Macklemore… "Same Love" is not only played at drag clubs and is a popular lip sync 4 ur life track, but it's what plays in loudspeakers in the bg of pride parades for those slow moving, rainbow flag waving "I can finally be myself wheee" moments in front of the camera.
.
.
.
In all seriousness, I really am gay and this song screamed corny to me when it came out. It was a kind of disingenuous "Oscar grab" moment. Like I'm sure that's how he really feels, but you make a whole charity song-ahh single when nobody really asked you… He tries too hard to validate his career by doing wholesome shit and it's just dorky lol. Also I CANNOT listen to the first line of that track without laughing
@DarkXwolfEdgeCity
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
27:46
@AllenSmithe
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Its worth adding the context that Macklemore was active in his in the Seattle underground rap scene and if you listen to his early records it shoes you that he did in fact have chops and also spoke on whatever was on his mind, like a whole song about Vipasana meditation. The Heist was a noticeable shift in mainstream production and style, and frankly it was clear in that moment he was getting a chance to cash in and everybody was cool with him catching a break. The follow up was definitely a bummer seeing he didnt know what to do with himself from there. He could have gone back and mixed his actual more serious style with a few of pop hits it feels like he just felt like he had keep up this new persona.
@crisis98
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
I love the idea of the Drake/Kendrick beef being started by MACKLEMORE.
@Johnmyork23
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Wait what's wrong with Lil' Dicky? I don't follow shit, I just hear the music . Is there something I should know about him?
Also, didn't Macklemore die? I swear I heard he dead.
@bearcats513
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Taking a shot at Esperanza Spalding is just so weird to me because I cannot think of anyone less controversial than her? If you have beef with someone like that it's because you're the problem.
@Scantronimus466
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
It’s hilarious watching white liberals. They feel guilty if they say anything in support of minorities, because it’s “white paternalism” and therefore racist. But if they don’t say anything in support of minorities, then “silence is violence”, they aren’t being good allies and it’s also racist.
@Kinglink
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
The Posting of the text is indefensible, but it's not the massive crime people made it out to be. If he posted "I feel Kendrick should have won I reached out and told him so." Most people wouldn't have a leg to stand on, BUT still be mad about it. People didn't like Macklemore, full stop. The message was just their rallying cry, but they didn't like him before and they would have still hated him after.. Maybe it's he's white, maybe it's he's corny, maybe it's that he was the biggest artist at a time they felt they were being dismissed as a race.
None of this is to say "he shouldn't post the message" but also it doesn't really have to be defended, because that's not what people were mad about. If it was, an album that talked about it or his actions after could have smoothed it over… but nothing was going to smooth it over…. because it wasn't the REAL problem.
Spoons is one of the funniest songs I ever heard though… and no.. not in a way that's intended.. What was he thinking?
@senoreverything6366
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Good Kid was not Kendrick's debut album lmao
@DonMiller-u5b
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Thrift Shop SLAPS.
@joshnunya324
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
12:09 Adam? 😂
@joshnunya324
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
0:31 Who?
19:45 I agree
@joshnunya324
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
I like Downtown atleast and Cant Hold Us
@NexebNoXV
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
I was at the beginning of high school when Thrift-Shop-A-Mania was happening, and that was also the time when Colin Kaepernick took the 49ers to the Super Bowl. I say this because I lived in the city where Colin Kaepernick went to college, and so Kaepernick-A-Mania was also happening, and there was a Thrift Shop parody called "Colin Kaepernick Is Awesome" that got radio play somehow. A tiny bit, but still some. I heard it two or three times, which is five or six more times than I would've expected to hear it. And then they both just vanished as quickly as they arrived. Life is weird.
@richardgadberry8398
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
20:55 DENIED! SIT DOWN!
@lmaololroflcopter
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
I don’t understand “he’s another white man taking up space meant for black people” when Macklemore rapped about racism or white privilege. It’s his album, he can rap whatever he wants to rap about.
@bloop5337
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
the biggest issue with thrift shop is the r kelly line.
@jamesdominguez7685
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
I've never been a fan of his music (except Thrift Shop which remains a bop) but I've always respected Macklemore for his earnestness and willingness to use his fame to boost worthy causes. The story about him handing over the festival stage to black artists just cements it for me. I mean, isn't cringe pretty much just an uncomfortable level of honesty?
@ryuulock
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
macklemore walked so bbno$ could. also walk. a genuinely this is not a diss to either of them
@jasonsturdevant9261
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Was Popstar made with him in mind?
@TheMessCalledJess
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
I have always been a Macklemore fan, even after the cringe. It a little breaks my heart that he lost the favoritism of the public
@countphil1
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
That spoon song was horrifying
@ECharlesSSnow
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
30:02 KRS1 did a song with REM; he he’s used to that kind of thing.
@lady_laniary
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
Hold on now, the first time I heard that "white boy budda-duh-dudda-duh" flow was the Look At Me Now verse by Busta fucking Rhymes
@lm-ul6pn
May 17, 2026 at 2:16 am
How to play the flute was the best song on the album 😄