Macklemore & Ryan Lewis explain 6 month race seminar

This week's issue of Billboard features Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

The rap duo opens up about why they are determined to speak out on race and stop being 'silent out of fear', why Macklemore regrets not warning Iggy Azalea he was name checking her in 'White Privilege II', and how becoming sober saved his life.

On the media criticism he tends to get when speaking on issues of race:
"When you mess up publicly it can be difficult to get vulnerable again or to put yourself out there..."

Macklemore was afraid to speak out on the Michael Brown case...
"...I had been silent out of not wanting to mess up, out of a fear of saying the wrong thing. If I said the wrong thing, that would be a bigger story than me supporting it."

So he got a six month seminar on race from Ryan Lewis' former thesis advisor at the Univ. of Washington, Georgia Roberts:
"...I -appreciated that they weren't dismissive of the -criticism; they seemed genuinely interested in understanding it." says Roberts. Macklemore added, "Georgia really schooled us."

On creating a riff between himself and friend Iggy Azalea after writing about her in 'White Privilege II':
"...There's enough of a relationship that I should have let her know beforehand. And I didn't do that." When asked if he has made things right, Macklemore quietly responds, "I haven't talked to her."

On becoming sober:
"If it wasn't for sobriety," he says, "we would not be -talking right now. There would be no Unruly Mess to discuss. There just wouldn't be any music."