According to billboard.com, Macklemore recently called into Good Morning America on Thursday, September 22nd, and opened up about his journey through sobriety. “There is this kind of notion that, oh, if you want to be a rapper, if you want to be a rock star, drugs and alcohol go hand in hand,” he stated. “And for me, that’s just never been the case. I’ve been close to death too many times to count and it’s scary, We write people off. We pass people in the street. We look at people in tents. We have no compassion for where they came from, what they’re going through. We don’t look at them as someone with a disease. And we don’t think that they can be helped. We don’t think that they can change.”
Macklemore is attempting to bring awareness to the issue of addiction in his new role as the creative director for CLEAN Cause. September is National Recovery Month and his partnership will take the socially aware beverage brand into a new creative direction as they donate 50 percent from every can sold to helping people that are in active addiction get help into recovery.
“I could’ve just stayed silent, I wanted to speak up. I wanted to use my platform. I wanted to make music that talked about my journey with addiction and with recovery. And I think that when we do that and we share openly and honestly, then the stigma lessens and the disease of addiction is put at rest, you know, momentarily when we’re talking about it.” Said Macklemore.
Back in July, Macklemore collaborated along with Tones and I for “Chant,” his first single of the year along with an accompanying music video.
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