New Music: Macklemore feat. Kesha - 'Good Old Days'
Macklemore relives the “Good Old Days” with Kesha on their highly-anticipated collaboration off the Seattle rapper’s sophomore solo album, Gemini.
With her soulful singing, Kesha delivers the song’s moving and reflective chorus. “I wish somebody would have told me that some day, these will be the good old days,” she sings. “All the love you won’t forget / And all these reckless nights you won’t regret / Someday soon, your whole life’s gonna change / You’ll miss the magic of these good old days.”
Meanwhile, Mack ponders the “Good Old Days” of homecoming, drinking, and touring through the country. “We were underground,” he raps. “Loaded merch in that 12-passenger van / In a small club in Minnesota / And the snow outside of 1st Ave / I just wanted my name in a star.”
Macklemore gushed about working with Kesha during an interview with Rolling Stone. “She is a great spirit,” he said. “She is someone that I walked into the room and I immediately just caught a vibe with and became friends with pretty instantaneously. … She’s a musician, she’s a writer, she’s someone that is not afraid to try ideas in the studio, not afraid to get vulnerable in front of people, not scared to go for the high note when she doesn’t know if she can hit it or not. She is a musician in every sense of the word, and she’s hilarious.”
According to the rapper, it was Ryan Lewis who facilitated the collaboration. “Ryan had a session with her in Seattle. She was already here,” he said. “They had already done ‘Praying’ and they were working on a couple other records that I don’t think made her album. She had [an] off day and I hit Ryan and was like, ‘Would you mind if hit up Kesha?’ And he was like, ‘Of course not.'”
To go along with “Good Old Days,” Macklemore also unleashed “Change,” a non-album piano-laden track that features Ben Abraham. “Can’t critique the world if I can’t take the critique / Can’t blame my neighborhood if I don’t clean my own street / Can’t blame the drugs if I put the drugs in me / Can’t expect others to change if I don’t change me.”
Speaking with iHeart Radio, Macklemore said the song is “important” even though it doesn’t appear on his new album. “I’m proud of this song because it’s pretty,” he said. “It sounds good, and I think it’s important for the world right now.”
Gemini, Macklemore’s first solo album since 2005’s The Language of My World, arrives Sept. 22 featuring appearances by Lil Yachty (“Marmalade”), Offset (“Willy Wonka”), and Skylar Grey (“Glorious”).