Mac Miller 45,380

Malcolm James McCormick (January 19, 1992 – September 7, 2018), who performed as Mac Miller, was an American rapper and producer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who was best known for his evolution as an artist and his ability to blend genres, incorporating jazz, soul, funk, and even psychedelia into his raps. He was well-respected within the music industry, which was showcased by his close relationships with other artists such as ScHoolboy Q, Earl Sweatshirt, Thundercat, Syd, Anderson .Paak, Jon Brion, and a plethora of others.

Showing musical proficiency since a young age, including the ability to play the guitar, bass, drums, and piano all by age six, Mac released his first mixtape, But My Mackin' Ain’t Easy (2007), as Easy Mac and co-founded the duo The Ill Spoken at only 15 years old. Subsequently joining the Pittsburgh-based rap collective East End Empire, Mac’s mixtape journey began; by the end of 2009, he had independently released four mixtapes, one of which was nominated for Best Mixtape in the Third Annual Pittsburgh Hip-Hop Awards, bringing a style that largely resembled the late-‘90s hip-hop he had come to love and idolize.

Mac’s natural rapping ability paired with his love for the genre caught the attention of local record labels; after only three years on the scene, Mac Miller signed a deal with Pittsburgh-based record label Rostrum Records, home of fellow Pittsburgh-native Wiz Khalifa, in 2010. Later that year, mixing his classic hip-hop homage style with the on-the-rise “frat rap” genre, Mac released his breakthrough mixtape K.I.D.S., characterized by its youthful, upbeat sound and odes to weed-smoking. The success of K.I.D.S. on DatPiff.com, along with the attention garnered by several music videos Mac shot for the tape, sparked a significant surge in his popularity. Only a year after the release of K.I.D.S., Mac followed up with his debut studio album, 2011’s Blue Slide Park. Continuing to build on the party anthems and frat-rap sound that had caused such a large rise in his fan base, Blue Slide Park became the first independently-distributed album to reach #1 on the US Billboard 200 chart in over 15 years.

Although Blue Slide Park was a commercial success, the album was scrutinized by numerous critics, most notably Pitchfork, one of the most influential music publications of the internet age, who rated the album a 1/10 and called Mac “a crushingly bland, more intolerable version of Wiz Khalifa”. Following the critical reception, Mac’s music saw a large shift in tone; less than four months after the release of Blue Slide Park, Mac released the mixtape Macadelic, known by fans to be the first project of Mac’s to feature a darker, more introspective soundscape. Around this time, Mac also started experimenting with drugs such as lean and ecstasy. After the release of Macadelic, Mac moved to Los Angeles to shoot his own TV show for MTV in late 2012, where he established his infamous home studio, the Sanctuary.

Mac’s time in the Sanctuary is when he began to expand his vision for his career; aside from collaborating with an all-star cast of artists, Mac founded his own independent record label, REMember Music. Along with releases from artists that Mac signed, the label would see releases from Mac’s latest experiments: his own alter-egos. In a similar fashion to MF DOOM, Mac released various projects under different aliases, most notably his producer alias Larry Fisherman, his jazz persona Larry Lovestein, and his pitched-up, horrorcore alter-ego Delusional Thomas. After releasing his sophomore studio album, 2013’s Watching Movies with the Sound Off, which continued with his new profound, philosophical style, Mac parted ways with Rostrum Records and independently released his mixtape Faces, widely considered his magnus opus, the following year. Although the mixtape was critically acclaimed and loved by fans, the rawness of the mixtape showed that this period in time was one of Mac’s darkest; his in-depth lyricism painted a vivid picture of emerging struggles with substance abuse, especially cocaine, paired with a depressive and often suicidal state of mind.

Shortly after the release of Faces, Mac signed a $10 million record deal with his first major label, Warner Records. 2015 saw Mac’s first major label release, his third studio album GO:OD AM. Compared to the darker content of his most previous projects, such as Mac’s battles with drug addictions and suicidal thoughts, GO:OD AM is seen as a large turning point in Mac’s career due to its lighthearted, hopeful themes. In September 2016, following months of speculation, pop singer Ariana Grande officially confirmed that she and Mac were dating. The pair first met in 2012 and collaborated on Ariana’s lead single “The Way” from her debut studio album. Days after their announcement, Mac released his fourth studio album, The Divine Feminine, which is largely about love and the divinity of women. Many fans previously speculated that the album was entirely about Ariana, though she denied this claim, stating that only “Cinderella” is about her.

On May 10, 2018, after almost two years together, Ariana announced that she and Mac had split up. She cited Mac’s struggles with drug addiction as a major factor in their breakup. One week later, Mac was involved in and arrested for a DUI hit-and-run. Nearly three months after his breakup, on August 3, 2018, Mac released Swimming, his fifth studio album. Swimming was praised by NME for “show[ing] his growth as both an artist, and as a person who’s had to deal with the most private aspects of their life being publicly dissected”. Rolling Stone wrote that Swimming is Mac’s “most impactful album of his career”.

Just over a month after the release of Swimming, TMZ reported that Mac Miller was found dead on September 7, 2018 in his San Fernando Valley home due to an apparent drug overdose at age 26, making Swimming his final body of work during his lifetime. Mac had long struggled with drug addiction and drug abuse, both of which were constant themes in his music.

On January 17, 2020, Mac’s estate released Circles, Mac’s sixth studio album and his first posthumous album. Mac had been working on Circles as a companion piece to Swimming, and had been receiving help from Jon Brion. After Mac’s passing, his family entrusted Jon with finishing up the album. Nearly five years later, Mac’s second posthumous album, Balloonerism, was announced for January 2025. Balloonerism is a project that Mac was working on simultaneously with Faces, although it was ultimately shelved in favor of Faces and other subsequent projects.