OTHERSIDE

When it comes to hip hop, I usually don’t dive right in. But the stuff I listen to, I am thankful to say, I was introduced to by either my brother Kramer, or my friend Trevor, so its all really good hip hop. Being raised listening to CCM and folk music in general, hip hop is one of those scary genres that I couldn’t quite feel brave enough listening to. I also was afraid of enjoying it. The reasons for that are for another blog post, perhaps. But now that I have a little bit of hip hop listening under my belt, and even some songs memorized, I felt no shame giving Macklemore a listen 6 months ago.

I purchased the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ‘Vs Redux EP’ and really really enjoyed all of the songs. Then I remember sitting on the bus, listening to the EP, and actually LISTENED track 3. You know when you’ve heard songs over and over but you’ve never really HEARD them? I heard track 3, ‘Otherside’, for the first time on the bus. And I could feel the music. It completely engulfed me and tangled me in its web. After the song, I skipped ahead to the other slower song on the EP, ‘The End’, and really heard THAT track and cried the whole time.

Since then, and all the “research” I’ve done on Macklemore and his genius production counterpart, Ryan Lewis, I’ve really fallen for these dudes. In a completely heterosexual, musical way. I’ve tried to spread their tunes around to friends as best as I could. I follow them online and I stay on top of what their up to. 

And today, they dropped the music video for ‘Otherside,’ featuring Chris Mansfield from the band Fences. He sings on the EP version as well. Feast your ears, eyes, hearts, and minds:

I feel a special connection to this version of the song as well because Fences is the other band that my bass player is in. I love how interconnected this city is.

So start following these guys if you haven’t already. I promise you won’t be let down. And if you are, just blame me.