Seattle rapper Macklemore, real name Ben Haggerty, admitted in a new cover story for Complex that he relapsed into taking pills and smoking weed following the monumental success of his 2013 LP with Ryan Lewis, The Heist. His recovery, however, was crucial in inspiring the duo’s new album, slated to arrive later this year. Haggerty said, “I was burnt out. I was super-stressed. We weren’t sleeping — doing a show every day, zigzagging all over the country. In terms of the media, I was getting put into a box that I never saw for myself.” Haggerty copped to sneaking around to get high and promising to get clean but never following through. Lewis said he noticed a change in his partner’s behavior, too, especially when progress on their new album stalled. But it wasn’t until his fiancé Tricia Davis learned she was pregnant that the rapper again embraced sobriety.
