Macklemore Talks ScHoolboy Q and Ab-Soul Collaborations on New Album

As he's built substantial buzz over the last year and a half, Macklemore has done so with limited outside help. Each of his songs are produced by Ryan Lewis, and rarely has he collaborated with other artists. The same approach will almost hold true for his album, The Heist, which is slated to hit stores on October 9. Lewis will once again handle duties behind the boards, but there will be a couple hip-hop features on there, including ScHoolboy Q and Ab-Soul.

"We have a song called ‘White Walls,’ about Cadillacs," Macklemore revealed to XXLMag.com, about his collaboration with ScHoolboy. "Q and I had talked about doing something for a while. He was in town, we were kickin’ it, knocked it out in the studio. I bought a Cadillac maybe six months ago, so I wanted to write a song about Cadillacs. ‘Cause I feel like no one would expect that from me—Mr. “Wings” and anti-consumer. But at the time time, I’m completely some dude that is caught up in consumer culture, as well. And definitely always wanted a Cadillac. I told Q the concept and he was with it."

The 2012 XXL Freshman also teamed up with Q's Black Hippy brethren, Ab-Soul, for a creative record. "It’s a song called ‘Jimmy Iovine,’ which is about stealing a record deal," he continued. "It’s kind of this fictional story about me walking into Interscope records and stealing a record deal. It’s an interesting record. I met Ab with Q when he was in town, and we kicked it. Last minute, a couple days before [the album] had to get mastered, hit him up and asked him to do this hook. He knocked it out in a couple days."

Mack felt that Soulo was the ideal fit for that record. "Ab is just one of those dudes that I feel like is against the grain of the industry. The whole TDE camp is, but I think Ab in particular has kind of that, doesn’t want to be part of the system type of mentality. He rebels against a lot of the things that are inherently the music industry. He really liked the concept and really liked the record."

The rapper stressed the importance of staying true to himself throughout the project. "I didn’t wanna get anybody on the record that didn’t feel natural, didn’t feel organic," he concluded. "I wanted to get people that I had personal relationships with, or just fuck with my music in general, and not make it something that was a forceful operation."

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' The Heist drops October 9, and the pre-order is available here. —Adam Fleischer (@AdamXXL)