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“Ten Thousand Hours,” the album’s opening song, is largely based on Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 book Outliers: The Story of Success. In the book, Gladwell puts forward the “10,000-Hour Rule,” claiming that it generally requires a total of around 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in whatever field. Macklemore ties this into his own rap career: he’s put the time in to become a great MC.
When Interview’s Dan Buyanovsky asked him whether he thinks that he has in fact amassed 10,000 hours of rapping, Macklemore replied: “Man, I’m up there. If you combine that with writing, I’ve gotta be close.” In Macklemore’s case, the “10,000-Hour Rule” proved true, then: The Heist turned out to be wildly successful and vaulted the rapper into mainstream.
Malcolm Gladwell was pleased to hear his theory get this kind of recognition. Commenting on the song on CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, he said it was “huge” to be name-checked by Macklemore. He also claimed it was “maybe the greatest thing to ever happen to me” and added: “I mean, I’m done at this point. What’s left?”
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