Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are a hip hop duo from Seattle, Washington. Macklemore started writing lyrics at age 14 after being heavily influenced by hip hop from the East Coast. He started releasing music in year 2000 and in 2005 he released his first album titled The Language of My World. Ryan Lewis grew up playing guitar and got involved in producing music at age 15. He released his first EP in 2008 titled Instrumentals. In 2009 the two combined forces as Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and released their first EP titled The VS. EP. The duo released their debut album The Heist in 2012 which was a major success.