• June 19, 1983
• Macklemore vacillates between fun party tunes and songs that make strong statements, often about equality. He sometimes gets political, as on "Hind's Hall," his 2024 song that calls for a free Palestine.
• His real name is Ben Haggerty. When he started performing, he used the name Professor Macklemore, which how he's credited on his 2000 EP Open Your Eyes, released when he was 17. Professor Macklemore was also a character he created - a kind of eccentric superhero. He eventually dropped "Professor" and kept Macklemore.
• In 2009 he teamed with the producer Ryan Lewis to form the duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. They had a surprise hit in 2012 with "Thrift Shop," which they followed with another big hit, "Can't Hold Us." Following their 2016 album This Unruly Mess I've Made, they took a hiatus and Macklemore focused on his solo career.
• As a white rapper from Seattle, he's tried to respect Black artists in hip-hop by admitting he's an interloper. In 2005 he released a song called "White Privilege," where he raps:
  
  Most whites don't want to acknowledge this is occurring
  'Cause we got the best deal, the music without the burden
  
  In 2016 he released a sequel, "White Privilege II," amid the Black Lives Matter movement.
• Macklemore has been candid about his addiction. He entered rehabilitation for drugs and alcohol in 2008, relapsed in 2011, and turned that experience into the 2012 song "Starting Over." He told NPR that he cannot be creative while using substances: "From a very early age I knew that if I wanted to make music, successfully, in any capacity, I was going to have to get sober."
• In 2015 he married his longtime girlfriend, Tricia Davis. Their three kids often serve as inspiration for Macklemore's songs.

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