I was in Miami, Fla., last week and made a bet with my travel companions. I said we would hear Seattle rapper Macklemore in a restaurant or club. The guy is just everywhere right now. Sure enough, we did: "Thrift Shop" blasted onto the sidewalk from a restaurant on Collins Ave., one of many songs currently endearing him to the nation, boosting his profile and drawing people to his sensational album "The Heist." Macklemore and musical director Ryan Lewis performed "Thrift Shop" on "Fallon" last night. Cool things about the performance: The Roots are Fallon's house band, aka the greatest live band in hip-hop, and played drums and instruments. It's on any rapper's before-I-die list: "Play with ?uestlove" (The Roots' drummer). So check that off. Also Macklemore, ham that he is, broke the fourth wall and got intimate with the crowd, threw t-shirts into the audience, eventually dumped his entire box of merchandise on newly converted fans, who loved it. It showed one of the reasons he's so successful. At every concert, you feel like he's giving you everything.

Check my written profile of Mack and video interview at the Dearborn Goodwill here.

Introductory profile from last year here, where I predicted he would become a pop star.

In a parallel story, local singer and Mack-collaborator Allen Stone played "Leno" the same night (you can find the video via google; listen to Stone/Mack song "Neon Cathedral" here).