"The Heist" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis is one of my favorite albums. In my opinion, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are one of the best duos in music today. This summer, I get to see them perform at the Minnesota State Fair. "The Heist" has a big background and a lot of thought put into it, it also has two of my favorite songs, and most of the songs were written about the artists’ life events.

The album was announced in July of 2012, and released on October 9th, 2012. It was Macklemore’s and Ryan Lewis’ full-length debut album together. “The Heist” is a total of 61:25 minutes long. “The Heist” was the #1 album within hours of release. It hit the #1 spot on four different charts worldwide. On April 3rd, 2013, the album hit gold status. There were over 500,000 copies sold. There were two specific songs that helped in giant measures to get the album to gold status.

The most popular songs on the album are “Thrift Shop” and “Same Love”. These two songs were the two main hits on “The Heist”. “Thrift Shop” was released on October 9th, 2012 with the album. It was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks in a row. There were three million copies of “Thrift Shop” were sold in the U.S. It hit #1 on thirteen different charts worldwide. My other favorite song on this album is “Same Love”. “Same Love” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at #99, and so far has reached #82. “Same Love” was written in support of Washington state’s Referendum 74 regarding gay marriage. It also refers to his uncle, who is gay. The song refers to his uncle twice. These two songs also tie in with both artist’s backgrounds.

Macklemore has been an active artist since 1999. He used to call himself Professor Macklemore, but dropped Professor when he started working with Ryan Lewis. He began writing song lyrics at the age of 14. His solo debut album was released in January of 2005. It was called “The Language of My World”. Ryan Lewis and Macklemore met in 2006. Ryan Lewis is a college graduate and he majored in photography. He took pictures for Macklemore in 2006, which is how they met. They released an EP together called “The VS. EP”, released on November 9th, 2010.
The album had a lot of work put into it and they showed it in every song on the album. The Minnesota State Fair Grandstand concert will be the first time I see Macklemore and Ryan Lewis perform, but hopefully not the last. “The Heist” is a great album and I like every song on it. I highly recommend this album and the many other albums to come from these two amazing artists.