In the song’s lyrics, Macklemore candidly raps, “I’m from the underground, anything above ground is a mountain/I’m done tryna impress anybody but the heavens where I’m headed/You don’t get to hold on me your flowers/I am in my zonе, eyes on the thronе.”
He continues, “20k deep, better pull out your phones/Turnin’ the arena to believers every time I hit the ceiling/Ain’t nobody ever touchin’ my show/Look at where we started, look at where we got to/Almost OD’d that night in the hospital/Wasn’t gonna die, more life in the arsenal/Got another shot to pull off the impossible.”
The Washington native initially began treatment for drug and alcohol addiction in 2008. He revealed that he suffered a relapse in 2011 and then again in 2014. In 2021, Macklemore was a guest on Dax Shepard’spodcast where he first revealed he had relapsed over the pandemic. The rapper said he was losing focus on his sobriety as his 12-step meetings became virtual.
“It was within two months of my COVID relapse, and the disease of addiction is crazy,” he said at the time. “I’ve spent most of the last 11 years in recovery, and it’s made me who I am,” he said. “I’ve compromised my life and other people around me, I’ve done things that I’m not proud of, but I do have that foundational level of 10 years of recovery, and I’m f***ing proud of that.”