The singer started writing lyrics in high school and went by the name Professor Macklemore, a name he came up with for a project.

Freshman year, he went to Garfield high in Seattle, the same one Jimi Hendrix and Quicy Jones attended, where he and some students started a group called "Elevated Elements" that performed around town. His parents transferred him after a year when Macklemore started getting into drugs to Nathan Hale in Seattle.

"Garfield was just a wild school. The teachers had given up before they had even started," Macklemore told Complex in 2012. "Classes were hella disruptive. Nathan Hale was more tamed. I needed a school like Nathan Hale. Because being kind of the kid [who] was getting into drugs and was rebelling against whatever my teachers said or whatever my parents said, getting into fights."

"Hale took me out of my environment. I didn't really have friends there. I never really liked it," he continued. "It made me focus on music. That's when I really didn't have else to do. I kind of stopped smoking weed at school. It just became more about writing raps and focusing on music."