“Downtown” is the second song released from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s follow-up to 2012’s breakout album The Heist. The track features Eric Nally of Foxy Shazam on vocals, along with rap figures Kool Moe Dee, Melle Mel, and Grandmaster Caz. The track premiered through an hourly airplay initiative on iHeartRadio stations on August 27, 2015, preceding its digital release and premiere performance on the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards.
The chorus’s soaring vocal (and the song’s title) also pay a bit of homage to Petula Clark’s ‘60s classic “Downtown.”
Oh and it’s about mopeds. Yes, mopeds. He did say he would make a song for everything after all…