A.K.A: That song always on the radio where Macklemore brags about smelling like 'P**ssss'.
ORIGINS: This song has been big in the US (where it was born in Seattle) for a while now but has only recently made it into the UK charts.
VIRAL FORMULA: Genuinely good song (not often found on the internet) + Randomness + Lots of radio air time!
As I'm typing this, this song currently has 108714852 views on Youtube. I mean, personally I can't even say that number in one go without messing it up. And yet, it really does deserve all this attention. Macklemore (real name - Ben Haggerty) is preaching about saving rather than spending money "And look[ing] as fresh as possible at the same time". Not exactly what most rappers are rapping about these days. Perhaps this is thanks to him not being signed, with no big record label breathing down his neck he is able to rap about what he likes, from his 'skeet blanket' to his 'flannel zebra onesie'.
It's not all about the message of saving money though, the music is undoubtedly catchy and although the lyrics may seem a tad crude, "I have a big c**k, nah I'm just pumped, bought some s**t from the thrift shop" it just adds to the overall jokey atmosphere. Plus the music video looks like it was a blast to film, again completely different to the usual angry looking rappers surrounded by pouty models and fancy cars. Macklemore and crew actually look to be having fun.
Of course being Youtube, already there are plenty of videos copying this latest trend. My favourite being this high quality parody, which seems to follow the original video almost perfectly:
Altogether Thrift Shop is not only likable and popular, but genuinely spreads a good message. And if it persuades a generation to chose to go to the thrift or charity shop rather than the shopping mall, then that's kind of brilliant.
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