Seattle rapper Macklemore tops iTunes charts

Seattle-based rapper Macklemore has climbed to the top of the national charts, as his new album “The Heist” – made with producer Ryan Lewis – reached number one on iTunes Tuesday.

Macklemore’s popularity continues to grow. He kicks off a hot selling national tour Friday with a sold-out show at Seattle’s WAMU theater.

The rapper’s been getting plenty of attention for his song with Lewis called “Same Love,” which supports marriage equality. The video for the song, which tells the story of a gay couple, has gone viral, getting over three million views on YouTube.

“It’s an issue that people still call people the ‘f-word’ and say that ‘that’s gay’ and use that as a derogatory term. That is crazy to me, that that’s okay for some reason,” he said in an interview earlier this summer with The News Chick. “That is the one group of people that it’s still okay to oppress on a daily basis, in raps, and no one really talks about it.”

Macklemore and Lewis celebrated the number one spot with a free, rooftop concert atop Easy Street records in Seattle’s Lower Queen Anne neighborhood Tuesday.

“It’s a dream come true,” Macklemore, aka Ben Haggerty, told KING 5 immediately after the concert, “It’s a very surreal feeling. There are no real words to describe that.”
“To go number one in America is not something you anticipate,” added producer Lewis.