American rapper and music producer Mac Miller’s death was announced on 7 September. The entire music industry and his fans are still reeling from the loss. Miller, who reportedly died of an accidental drug overdose, was just 26.
Hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the late artiste won recognition for creating a body of work that resonates with millennials. In his lifetime, he released five studio albums that became Billboard chartbusters, and his videos garnered millions of views on YouTube.
Miller, whose real name was Malcolm McCormick, entered the music scene on 8 November 2011 with his debut studio album Blue Slide Park. This was the first independently distributed debut album to peak to number one on the US Billboard 200 charts, since 1995.
As the wheels of his career started rolling at a fast pace, Miller fell deeper into the mire of substance abuse. Miller revealed in 2012 that he has become addicted to purple drank or lean, which is a combination of promethazine and codeine. He claimed that drugs helped him in dealing with the stress of being on tours. Miller publicly talked about his struggles with addiction, but his lyrics really brought out his story.
Right from his first album, the wordings of his songs drew attention to this issue. For example, he sang “I ain’t normal, I’m clinically insane… I guess it’s the result of drugs that enter in my brain,” in “Of the Soul” from his first album.
Over half-a-dozen years later, his existential crisis was evident in his fifth studio album, Swimming, that released last month. It debuted at number 3 on Billboard, became his fifth consecutive album on US Top 10, and because of the lyrics, it became the talking point in music circuits globally. There was a certain kind of honesty, with which he confronted his personal battles with addiction, weaving them into songs. Nevertheless, there was still a sense of optimism in him.
What has caught attention about the album after Miller’s premature death is the video of “Self Care”, a song from the Swimming. In it, Miller is seen lying in his own coffin, carving “memento mori”, which means reflection on mortality in Latin, on the wooden ceiling. He puffs on a cigarette looking fazed. The song ends with him breaking off, becoming a cloud of dust and rising high, weightless.
Miller’s love of music emerged in his childhood. Born to Mark McCormick, an architect, and Karen Myers, a photographer, Miller took piano lessons since he was six. He then went on to learn how to play drums, guitar and keyboard. Having learned how to play several musical instruments, he then started rapping at the age of 14. He was a self-taught singer.
The following year, Miller joined a rap group, The Ill Spoken, in his hometown, Pittsburgh, and released his own mixtape, But My Mackin’ Ain’t Easy. After that, he released several mixtapes. In 2010, he was signed by the Pittsburgh record company, Rostrum Records, which brought out his mixtape K.I.D.S., after which he went on to releasing albums. The rapper cited the Beastie Boys, Lauryn Hill and A Tribe Called Quest as his inspirations.
The singer’s 2011 mixtape, Best Day Ever, had the single “Donald Trump”. It hit 75 on the Billboard Hot 100, and received a million downloads, apart from many millions of plays on YouTube. The current US President had back then praised the rapper as “the new Eminem” and went on to say that he was proud of him, though later he demanded royalties from Miller for using his name in the single.
After Blue Slide Park happened, next for Miller was Watching Movies with the Sound Off in 2013. This reached number three on Billboard. GO:OD AM (2015) again got featured at number four. But his last year’s album, The Divine Feminine, shot up to number two. The album had guest appearances by Kendrick Lamar, Anderson Paak and Ariana Grande.
Amid all the hit albums and popularity, people began to witness a shift in his songs from frat-rap to allusive lyrics, and underlying jazz, hip-hop and psychedelic tones. Attributing it to the development of Miller’s music and production skills, his stardom only kept growing.
Miller founded REMember Music, his own record label in early 2013. He also filmed a reality series Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family, which ran from 2013-14. In his career, Miller worked on collaborative tracks with Pharrell Williams and Justin Bieber among many others. He also worked as a producer under the pseudonym Larry Fisherman. With this, he collaborated with Vince Staples, Ab-Soul, Riff Raff, Smoke DZA etc.
Earlier in May this year, Miller was arrested for driving under influence and then fleeing from the scene of an accident. Shortly afterwards, his long-term relationship with the singer Ariana Grande ended. This reportedly started his downward spiral, and even though condolences have been pouring in since the news of his death broke out, many have insensitively accused Grande of pushing Miller to his tragic end.
While tributes are coming in from around the globe and people are mourning the loss of the great music which Miller could have given us in the future, his music is sure to endure long after him.