Review: Macklemore's fun 'Downtown' gets too much hate

Many people have given negative feedback, at best, about Macklemore’s latest single, “Downtown.” Andre Grant, features editor of Hiphopdx.com, calls “Downtown” the “most sellout song of 2015.” Tom Mann of Fasterlouder.com gave only a couple of good points in his list of five reasons Macklemore’s “Downtown” will not reach the Hottest 100 list of 2015, but then uses a few of those reasons to simply trash the song and artist.

There’s not much I have to say about Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’ latest track “Downtown.” It’s catchy, fun, features amazing vocals by Eric Nally of Foxy Shazam and has an outstanding video that makes the song even more enjoyable.

Maybe it’s not for everyone, and I completely get that. I’m just tired of reading articles and lists from people telling me how terrible “Downtown” is, yet giving no valid reasons to back up their opinions.

Take Mann’s “5 reasons why Macklemore won’t win the Hottest 100 again with his trainwreck new single ‘Downtown.’” First off, that headline’s way too long. Secondly, in his second reason – “It’s not ‘Uptown Funk’ ” – Mann states Macklemore really wants people to like him, and “Downtown” really wants to be “Uptown Funk.” Then he makes a few clever jokes comparing “Downtown” to an off-Broadway performance of “West Side Story,” but fails to make any parallels between “Uptown Funk” and “Downtown.”

Also, who told Mann Macklemore really wants us to like him? Why was he privy to this information?

I think my favorite reason in Mann’s list is number four – “You only get to win the Hottest 100 once.” Macklemore took a top spot on the Hottest 100 list in 2012 with “Thrift Shop.” If you can only win once, what was the point of Mann’s article?

Grant is even harder on the track, referring to it as “straight up musical gentrification.” Hold on a second, did I miss the part where someone owns a genre of music? If Donald Trump tomorrow purchased the rights to the musical genre of hip hop and didn’t hand a certificate out to Macklemore, do you really think he would stop making music? I’m sure Johnny Cash rolls over in his grave every time a Sam Hunt song is played on a country station, but that doesn’t mean people will stop referring to it as country.

Grant accuses Macklemore of giving the people more music that essentially numbs them while insulting their intelligence, claiming he doesn’t put any real emotion into his work. If this album is anything like “The Heist,” there will be plenty of emotion scattered throughout.

I also do not appreciate Grant’s use of the term “pop song.” Pop songs don’t have to be jazzy, up-tempo numbers that get us out on the dance floor. Pop songs are songs that happen to be popular at any given moment.

Macklemore doesn’t make a secret about who he is or what he does. He doesn’t think he’s a hardened criminal or gangster, and he doesn’t act that way. He makes music because he likes to, and sometimes he makes music that isn’t very deep.

I don’t suspect anyone is sitting around thinking about how prolific lines like “mom jeans on her derriere” and “honestly, I don’t know nothing about mopeds” truly are, but if you listen to songs like “Wing$,” “Starting Over” and the ever-popular “Same Love,” you will see there are deeper messages in the music.

Anyone who believes this is more of the same from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, clearly did not listen to “The Heist” in its entirety.

Still, there is so much hate for a song that wants nothing more than to be fun.

• Jason Pfrommer is a videographer for Shaw Media who graduated from Northern Illinois University with a degree in journalism. Pfrommer is a long-time vinyl collector and lover of music. He often can be heard quoting TV and movies and making pop culture references. He can be reached at jpfrommer@shawmedia.com.