Creators behind the chart topping tune “Thrift Shop,” rapper Macklemore and producer Ryan Lewis say their interests in music mixed with social media have led them to where they are now.

In an interview with 92.3 NOW/New York, Macklemore said that the two met back in the day on MySpace. Crediting social media platform MySpace as a means to early development, Macklemore says “We remained friends and a couple years later did EP together.”

“Ryan had a beat that I wanted and the rest is history” said Macklemore.

Macklemore Finds Success Despite Sticking To His Indie Roots

Macklemore and Lewis’s “Thrift Shop” is currently at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received attention from major record labels but the duo decided not to sign.

“We had conversations, we had beautiful steak dinners in New York City with pepper corn sauce” says Macklemore, “We did it right with the record labels but for the most part what they had to offer us wasn’t what we wanted at the time.”

Choosing to put music out independently, Macklemore says “it makes sense to us to be in creative control and do it ourselves and put the music out direct-to-fan.”

Looks like the time has come however — Billboard reports that after a long and successful relationship with Warner Brothers’ distribution arm, ADA, finally joined up with the label properly. The fact that they already had a hit song helped them leverage a good deal, but so did their loyal and immense social media fan base. And with the release of the new album The Heist, the fan base has grown.

“I’ve almost doubled Twitter followers…I do my own updates and I try to hit people back if they hit me with something that’s tight,” Macklemore said.

“I tweet back” says Lewis, who produced the follower gaining album, “I’m still at a small enough amount of followers.”

-Meagan Cunningham, Radio.com

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