"Thrift Shop" - #1 song!

When I drive my daughter to and from religious school on Sunday mornings, we often listen to the American Top 40 countdown on the radio.  I'm always curious about what song is #1.

This week, the #1 song was a song which has a subject that should be near and dear to many frugal folks - "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz.

A warning: the rap song is full of profanity - even the clean radio version isn't completely clean.  Still, I think it passes on a good message that most songs today don't.

Most popular songs today talk about money in terms of spending on prestige - going to the best parties, spending on jewelry and cars and alcohol.  But this song is exactly the opposite.  Macklemore raps that he prefers searching for bargains at the local thrift shop than buying clothes at a fancy store.  Or even better, getting them for free!  He raps:

I'ma take your grandpa's style, I'ma take your grandpa's style,
No for real - ask your grandpa - can I have his hand-me-downs?

And later, talking about the fancy clothes that others wear:

They be like, "Oh, that Gucci - that's hella tight."
I'm like, "Yo - that's fifty dollars for a T-shirt."
Limited edition, let's do some simple addition
Fifty dollars for a T-shirt - that's just some ignorant ***
I call that getting swindled and pimped
I call that getting tricked by a business

When interviewed about the song by MTV News, Macklemore said, ""Rappers talk about, oh I buy this and I buy that, and I spend this much money and I make it rain, and this type of champagne and painting the club, and this is the kind of record that's the exact opposite. It's the polar opposite of it. It's kind of standing for like let's save some money, let's keep some money away, let's spend as little as possible and look as fresh as possible at the same time."

It's nice to hear about thrift shopping on the radio rather than shopping and partying until you drop!

Here's the full clean version of the song for those of you who haven't heard it.  Warning: even though it's the clean version there is still some profanity included.

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