Intro
Mac Miller once said in an interview, “The people that have the best chance of knowing me, that would like to…would just be by listening to my music.” This was during an interview with Vulture, an interview that would come to be his last before his tragic passing due to overdose at the age of 26. Although a short career, Mac Miller emerged out of high school as one of the most influential rappers of his time. Mac as an artist constantly grew and evolved throughout his career from the “EZ Mac with the cheesy rap” rapper fresh out of high school to his later music developing as an alchemy of complicated sorrow and clear-headed descriptions of substance abuse with drugs. While it’s impossible to embody Miller’s entire career in just a few songs, through this track by track annotated playlist I will analyze eight of Miller’s songs that I believe best represent his career and evolution as an artist. The selected tracks will be presented in a chronological order from his earliest works to his last with background information given on each album before analyzing the chosen tracks from each work.
Best Day Ever
While Miller started releasing music back in 2007 as a high schooler, his fifth mix tape Best Day Ever marked his big break out as an artist in the rap genre. Best Day Ever acted as a transition from high school life to focusing on his full-fledged rap career. For many, Best Day Ever was the album that marked Mac Millers transition into the real deal as an artist.
Track #1 – Donald Trump
Donald Trump was Miller’s earliest and biggest hit of his career. The track samples Sufjan Stevens’ “Vesuvius” and creates a bouncy, energetic, and upbeat track that would quickly turn into a fan favorite to play at parties. The raps in this track turn from facile rags into riches fodder that highlight Miller’s early career of rapping to upbeat samples about the simple joy of finally being recognized as a musician, a craft he would pour endless hours into as a kid.
Ironically, in this song Miller intentionally or unintentionally predicated his inevitable rise to fame as he sang the lyrics “started out here locally/Hopefully, I’ll be at the top soon” and “take over the world while the haters gettin’ mad.”. This song was his self-introduction as a big-time artist in the rap game, while at the same time literally being the song that launched him into platinum status. In this way, this is the song that gave creation to Mac Miller as an artist and started it all. Even now nine years after its release this song maintains traction with its relevance to the now-President, a long feud and battle that Miller would take seriously up until his death.
Blue Slide Park
Blue Slide Park was Miller’s first truly independent studio album. While it was met with harsh criticism and controversy upon its release from critics, it serves as an unpolished gem among fans. More importantly this album marked a transition in Miller’s career of being the happy carefree high school rapper to an artist struggling with the success and fame.
Track #2 – PA Nights
My classic go to song when things are not going my way, Mac Miller puts it the best when he sings, “Hey, bullshit’s always gonna be bullshit / So make a toast to the good life”. A simple line that embodies the message, things aren’t always going to go your way but make the best of them, which is the theme of PA Nights and Blue Slide Park as a whole. Miller both in this song and album focuses on the troubles of fame but how to keep your thumb and head up through it all.
No doubt this song is more emotional than others before it. In the album commentary, Miller mentions himself how PA Nights is the first track he really opens up on and speaks about emotions that he hasn’t touched on before. It has deeper and more emotional lyrics that differ from the previous “cheesy” tracks of past Miller with lyrics such as, “My fam’s still the only people that really know me for who I am” and “Other people pretend, we hang out on the weekends”. Dealing with the emotional stress of not knowing who really is your friend when becoming famous. Yet even with its more emotional lyrics and its almost late-night beat it still leaves the listener feeling upbeat as if everything’s going to work out.
Track #3 – One Last Thing
This song for Mac, as he mentions in the album commentary, is the track the wraps up the album by leaving it all on the table. With the beat produced by Clams Casino, a producer known for bringing together conventional hip-hop drums, a sensitive ear for off-to-the-side melodies, and an overdose of oddly moving atmosphere this track is far from the upbeat tempos of old. This song sounds like what it would feel like to be stuck in limbo or a never-ending sleep. As Mac sings, “Late night can’t remember what the day’s like/Reminiscin’ on stop signs and brake lights/’Cause it seems that I’m always on the move/When they gonna let me back home” this song completely embodies Miller’s restlessness of dealing with fame and not feeling at home or like his old self. A significant shift in his career from the easy-going cheesy rapper of his youth.
Macadelic
Macadelic” is the 7th mixtape released by Mac Miller and is a personal favorite of mine that I always have spinning on the record player late at night. This mixtape truly marked the biggest shift in Miller’s music. While only a young 20 years old, Mac was heavily into drugs. This tape has a very dark quality to it, as themes of questioning religion and stories of drug abuse are present throughout the whole tape. Even the production has a very psychedelic quality to it. Unique to this project, there are also several samples from movies, most of which are depressing. Up to this point most people knew Mac for his hit songs such as “Donald Trump” or “Knock Knock” but this album is nothing like that at all.
Track #4 – Fight the Feeling
This song, without a doubt, is the shiny trophy of the album and is appropriate in name being the highlight of an album focused on drug use. The beautiful harmony of Mac, Kendrick Lamar, and Iman Omari along with a somber and smooth sound produces nostalgic feelings of the troubles of youth. Iman Omari’s voice is a perfect fit for this song and his work on the hook is able to further the feelings invoked by this song.
One of my favorite verses on this track that stands out to me is “I’m a Beatle to these young kids/But sometimes I be feelin’ like a needle to these young kids”. These two lines really embody where Mac is at in his life at this point. He’s am icon and inspiration for many, yet many would say his addiction to drugs makes him the opposite. Mac goes on to sing, “You had the world, you about to leave it to these young kids/And we gonna show you what the love is.” Leaving the feeling that no doubt Mac is in a dark place but there’s still optimism for the youth. Love is the feeling that Mac is trying to tell us we can’t fight, and he believes the youth is going to show the world what it is like to love again.
Watching Movies with The Sound Off
This is Mac Miller’s second studio album and hands down my favorite out of all his works. From start to finish of this album Mac Miller produces captivating song after song while touching on topics such as the struggles of life, friends lost, drugs consumed, depression, and the trappings of success.
Track #5 – Aquarium
Don’t be surprised if this song invokes some tears as Miller brings out his soft-spoken tenor previously featured throughout Macadelic and displays a bare interiority. In this track Miller questions the trappings and implications of celebrity and fame with a crisp cutting ambivalence. Miller turns his gaze upward and outward, casting aspersions to the ways we “hypothesize on how to monetize and take advantage of / all the time we fall behind, get lost in this aquarium.” This track unravels how these questions came about, and for the first time we start to understand why the drugs and addiction had become so prevalent in his life, “Sedatives that take me to God / witness his fetishes / We all in search for substance, that drugs you pain and numbness.” As if the celebrity lifestyle had already taken the reigns of his psychology he foretells its slow-burning takeover, “I wish I could tell you that I didn’t see this coming / But I’m ready for it all to end, die before tomorrow’s trend.” A time in his career in which it seems Mac is coming to terms with himself.
GO:OD AM
After coming to terms with himself in Aquarium, Mac went on record saying it’s time to “man up.” and then released his third studio album GO:OD A.M. in which he said was “the first album I recorded while being happy in a long time”. This can readily be seen through the album with a return to more upbeat lyrical clever songs about accepting who you are and handling your business.
Track #6 – Ascension
While this song has a sad and broken sound like others before it, Mac immediately acknowledges this in the first line, “I wonder if everybody hope that this song is not depressing as the last one was”. While throughout the entire song Miller revisits his struggles with depression and drug abuse, he rounds it back with the theme of handling your shit. In one line he says, “Okay, fucking tell these kids one thing, just make sure handle your business”. Playing with the idea of no matter who you are or what you’ve been through you must handle yourself before anything else. Reinforced by a few lines leading into the hook of the song, “I’m demanding the truth, put your hands to the roof / Be a man, that’s a challenge / Ascension (Challenge, are you up for that challenge) / A brand new me”. Here Mac acknowledges it isn’t easy manning up and getting his ducks in a row, but that he’s done with the excuses and is new version of himself.
The Devine Feminine
In what is his 4th studio album Mac Miller has referred to The Devine Feminine as an album that embodies, “the feminine energy of the planet.”. This isn’t an attempt to examine feminism in any way, but rather focuses in on topic of romance and connection in an attempt to understand the universe at large.
Track #7 – Planet God Damn
The Divine Feminine found Mac Miller uncharacteristically happy. After three albums shadowed in darkness, Miller’s early glee was finally recaptured on record from his early days. The largest difference of this album is Miller’s changing sound from familiar rap samples and breakbeats to live instrumentation and more of serenading voice. Planet God Damn presents Miller as heartbroken, “I think I’m stuck inside nostalgia/my mind are in the times when this love was so divine”, but skews hopeful as he imagines being laid up on the beach with his lover, “feeding each other grapes.” Even in his romantic posture, Miller places himself outside the industry; outside its deathly culture of abuse. In an ideal world, “We could quit the whole game, do the real estate thing / It’s how you beat the case.” Like mentioned before in Fight the Feeling love is that answer we are left with, even when falling out of it.
Swimming
This marked Mac Miller’s fifth and final album which returned to his somber and wounded rap style. Largely influenced by his split from Ariana Grande, Swimming goes from “you and me against the world” found in the Devine Feminine to just “me against the world,”. As much as Mac tries to convince himself that is almost as good on his warm but wounded fifth album, Swimming, he knows it’s not. A true representation of Mac at the end of his career, a warm artist but inevitably broken and lost.
Track #8 – Ladders
Ladders is the centerpiece of this album and hands down the gem of the entire project. Ladders is a memo that feels like bouncy hypothesis on the meaning of life from Mac who is very much still figuring it all out himself. The titular ladders are the central metaphor here, focusing on striving for new heights and taking hold of the next run as soon as you can. Characteristic of Miller’s music, a very heavy lyrical song still appears as one of the brightest beats on the album. It’s a buzzy, jazzy song that’s perfect to let loose to.
Outro
Mac Miller managed in a short career a plethora of success. Through it all he evolved with each album and mix tape he released. What makes Mac Miller so attractive as an artist is his journey through the lows and highs that we all experience. We see this in his music and relate to him, even if we’ve never met him. Truly as Mac says the best way to get to know him and his life is through listening to his music and understanding the struggles and successes he went through and how it all changed him.
Some Additional Sites for All Things Mac Miller!
Jacob's ASEM Music Blog 