TO GET FROM Capitol Hill in Seattle to the Space Needle, you just head west on Denny Way, then hang a right at Fourth Avenue North. You can't miss it.

Or you can take Ben Haggerty's more roundabout path: Grow up on Capitol Hill devoted to sports and rap, start a hip-hop group when you're 14, start performing under the stage name Macklemore, overcome substance abuse, break through with a couple of sports-themed videos, throw pizza parties for your fans, record an independent album called The Heist that goes to No. 1 on iTunes, then watch in amazement as one of the tracks, "Thrift Shop," gets more than 71 million YouTube views.

That's how Haggerty found himself at the top of the Space Needle in January, two days before the start of the Seahawks' unlikely postseason adventure. He and some of the city's other famous musicians were invited by Mayor Mike McGinn to raise the 12th-man flag. Haggerty, smiling as if he'd just pulled off a second unlikely heist, stepped up and said, "My name is Macklemore. My real name is Ben. I'm here on top of the Space Needle to come out and support the Seahawks. We're taking it this weekend! 21-7, my prediction."

Lindsey Wasson/Seattlepi.com

Pretty close: The final score was Seahawks 24, Redskins 14. But nobody could have predicted the incredible success of Macklemore and his producer, Ryan Lewis -- not even Haggerty. "It's been a crazy year," he said recently while on a break from his worldwide tour. "Kinda like the Seahawks'."

There is another delicious irony to Macklemore's hoisting that flag for the home team. He would not have been atop the Space Needle -- or the music world, for that matter -- were it not for his passion for games. "Sports are part of who I am," he says. "What I love about them is the stories, and that's what I do for a living -- I'm an emcee telling stories."

Haggerty, 29, has plenty to tell. He grew up in a close-knit, sports-loving family, which he often references in his songs. (He watched the Seahawks' playoff loss to the Falcons with his grandmother.) When he was 14, he formed a rap group called the Elevated Elements, and later, while in high school, he recorded an EP under the pseudonym Professor Macklemore. At the time, the Mariners' second baseman was Mark McLemore, but Haggerty swears he didn't borrow the name, "at least not consciously." Regardless, he became popular on the club and college scenes. After graduating from college, he taught music at a juvenile detention facility while continuing to perform and make a name for himself in Seattle.

But Macklemore's music career stalled periodically as he struggled with substance abuse until he finally cleaned himself up in 2008. Shortly thereafter, he joined forces with Lewis, whose orchestrations added a new dimension to Macklemore's sound. His career didn't really take off, though, until he found the perfect marriage between his two loves.