FUSE TV - Seattle Rapper Macklemore Talks Growing Up Catholic With Gay Uncles

Earlier this year, Macklemore released the touching pro-gay marriage track "Same Love." When Fuse talked with him at Lollapalooza 2012, the Seattle rapper—who is straight, BTW—revealed that the homophobic tendencies of his musical and religious backgrounds made him want to tackle the subject. 

"It's a record I've wanted to write a long time," Macklemore says to Fuse's Esteban Serrano. "I tried writing it from the perspective of a gay bullied kid... I grew up in the Catholic Church, I grew up with two gay uncles and a gay godfather, and I grew up in the hip hop community. So the Catholic Church and hip hop community are known as being very homophobic communities in a lot of ways," Macklemore says.

"I touched on it coming from that perspective, and also coming from the perspective of having gay people in my family and seeing examples of committed, beautiful relationships that have gone on for the last 20, 30 years. And [it was] also [about] holding my community, the hip hop community, accountable for how we use language. We put down a group of people all the time and it gets the pass. That's the one thing: It's still cool to call people the f-word. It's like the ultimate diss."

Despite his progressive attitude, Macklemore admits he and his producer Ryan Lewis used to call things "gay" until recently. "Even Ryan and I, until a couple years ago, would use 'that's gay' in everyday vocabulary. It's just about evolving as people. That's the great thing with Obama endorsing it and Jay-Z endorsing it. There's an evolution happening right now and I wanted to write a song that spoke to my experience and to our generation."

For the full interview—including details about the upcoming debut album The Heist from Macklemore and Lewis—watch the full interview above. And to see how muddy it got at Lolla after that big storm hit, check out these dirrrty pics.