"Wing$" by Juan Garcia

Well the first time I heard about Macklemore and Ryan Lewis was when I heard their song “     Can't Hold Us” going to the flea market and it just stuck. Macklemore surprised me with the song ”Wings” in the album “The Heist”. Macklemore was born as Ben Haggerty in June 19, 1983 in Seattle, Washington. He went through a lot, like using drugs going to rehab in 2008. But in 2014, he won 4 Grammys. The theme of this song is that it doesn't matter what you wear, what matters is what’s inside. The literary devices I found were situational irony and personification.

Macklemore personifies that laces are strangling him in order to show the theme about the song. In the fifth verse of the song he’s discussing that he’s trying to take his shoes off but he can't. The verse says, “strangled by these laces I can barely talk” (“Wing$” 1-47). These are the lyrics he used to convey the theme and what I personally think is true.

Macklemore has gone through a lot. Now, the song is really about his childhood. Like getting his shoes and belongings stolen and most of all, when the song says, “ And then my friend Carlos’s brother got murdered for his fours”. (Wing$ 1-16) He was murdered for his shoes… now that's just too much. This shows how people are taking lives of kids that just want to be cool. They just to be part of something, they want to fit in.

                                                                                                                                                      The best thing about “Wing$” is that the message affects everybody, that you aren’t what you were but you are who you are and that a pair of shoes doesn't make you any different. Macklemore's influences Michael Jackson, Kriss Ross, and especially his mom. She told him to support difference and that's what he does. And he especially shows that when the song says “Look at me, Look at me, I'm a cool kid. I’m an individual, yeah, but i’m part of a movement.”(“Wing$ 1-42) What he says is really powerful and really shows the point he’s trying to make. His tone changes a lot throughout the song, and that really impacts people.

                                                                                                                                                       

   It’s clear that Macklemore's is meant for everyone in general. Saying that it doesn't matter if they’re not cool. This reminds me of my own life because in Elementary school nobody cared about what you wore. But now in my last year at Everett Middle school there is “what are those” and all the stuff making kids feel like crap. Making them not want to be there. There has to be a change the way we treat each one another! They are at school to learn not to be mistreated. A pair of shoes doesn't make you different for who you really are.