Over the last 12 months Macklemore & Ryan Lewis went from barely known underground rappers to two of the biggest pop stars on the planet. So, what will they do for an encore?

Get back to work.

Early Friday morning (January 10), Mack answered his millions of fans' prayers by confirming that he and Lewis are back on their grind. "Very happy to be back in the lab with this guy," read the post from Mack, accompanied by a picture of Lewis chilling in a Southwestern-themed chair.

Unfortunately, the proud owner of an official KAWS-designed VMA moonman didn't offer up any further details about what the two are working on, but we can only assume it's new music for their second album as a duo. After touring the world, scooping up seven Grammy nominations and scoring two #1 hits, Lewis, was feeling the same emotions two weeks ago when he first hinted that the pair were starting on fresh material.

"Feels so good to be in the studio again daily," he wrote just before Christmas. "I'm gettin' on my weirdo sleep schedule again!!"

feels so good to be in the studio again daily. im gettin on my weirdo sleep schedule again!! — Ryan Lewis (@RyanLewis) December 23, 2013

Fans were excited to hear the news, with one writing, "#HellYes #Stoked #MacknLewis14 #BringThatIsh," and another adding, "Bout time you guys started making new music."

One thing is for sure, Mack and Lewis don't plan to change their game up when it comes to staying independent, and, according to Macklemore's interview for The Source magazine's Man of the Year issue, he still feels like he has something to prove to his hip-hop peers.

"I think that it's people that are stuck in a certain mentality, that aren't willing to grow and evolve with hip-hop music, that doubt," he said of some in the community who have dismissed the duo's success with The Heist and questioned their cred. "The first place that some of the criticism will go is the white boy came in and f---ed up hip-hop. But if you take the race thing out, the success at pop, the varying degrees of parents letting their kids listen to it, you cannot deny the quality of the music."

He reminded readers that when "Thrift Shop" first came out "rap blogs f---ed with it ... the comments section f---ed with it, everyone though it was dope." In fact, Kanye West told Mack that the first time he heard it on the radio, in his car in Los Angeles, he was an immediate convert too. "He said he turned it the f--- up and said, 'This dude is about to be famous.'"