Macklemore and Ryan Lewis's debut album went platinum. A rare feat this days. What made that more impressive is that they didn't start out doing Drake numbers. The Heist was a slow burn that continued to sell week after week, single after single. In their first week, the two only did 78,000.
The duo's new album This Unruly Mess I've Made dropped today and HDD is projecting it to will do 75,000 first week. Those numbers have to be disappointing, given where their last album ended up. Sure they have a chance to repeat The Heist's trajectory. But so far none of This Unruly Mess I've Made's singles have connected like 'Thrift Shop' or 'Can't Hold Us' did.
On the bright side, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are still indie, so they'll see a lot more of the money from sales than if they were signed.
Will Mack and Ryan find themselves with another platinum album as time goes on?