Macklemore and Ryan Lewis have been a bit quiet ever since releasing their long awaited sophomore album, This Unruly Mess I’ve Made, back in February. As a whole, the record didn’t exactly live up to expectations, but the underlying message of the album was how Macklemore persevered through a battle with drug addiction. Now, he goes into detail about it all on the therapeutic new song, “Drug Dealer.”
When listening to “Drug Dealer,” it’s clear that the Macklemore that had won everyone over in the past never really went anywhere. On the emotional three and a half minute song, he spits lines about drug related celebrity deaths, like Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse, and even touches on his own addictions that he’s struggled with before. Artist Ariana DeBoo provides vocals on the hard-hitting hook, featuring lyrics like “My drug dealer was a doctor, doctor/Had the plug from Big Pharma, Pharma.”
The song was written by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis for Macklemore’s MTV documentary, Prescription for Change: Ending America’s Opioid Crisis, which aired on October 11th. The forty minute documentary touches on the opioid epidemic sweeping the country and why it needs to be fixed, and it can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube.
