To be Macklemore & Ryan Lewis is to be scrutinized ceaselessly. The most consequential white hip-hop act since Eminem, this Seattle duo became a pop sensation, hip-hop curio and sociocultural lightning rod in 2012 on the back of the quirky breakthrough “Thrift Shop.” The boisterous and off-kilter track turned out to be the first in a string of four Billboard top 15 hits, two of which went to No. 1.

The success of the rapper Macklemore (born Ben Haggerty) and Mr. Lewis, a producer, was a reflection of the diffusion of hip-hop’s center, and the reach of its outer limits — here was a hip-hop group preoccupied with anti-ostentation and marriage equality, a combination that proved palatable to white audiences, which gobbled up the duo’s music, helping make its debut album, “The Heist,” go platinum.