It was only a few days before that I had delved into his new album ‘Swimming’, and started to really enjoy his newer sound. I had read that he was in a bad head space after his split with Ariana Grande, so I hoped that he hadn’t done it deliberately after suffering with depression from the breakup. My initial response was that it must of been some kind of horrible accident, but I soon found out that it was an apparent overdose that had killed him.
#MAC MILLER KIDS SONG MAC#
He’d only just released his new album about a month before! Admittedly, I had stopped listening to Mac Miller for a bit around the time he released his ‘The Divine Feminine’ album, but I had remained a huge fan nonetheless. I was still just praying to god that it was some terrible misunderstanding. As someone who has experienced depression throughout my teens and twenties, Mac had been an artist I has leant on for a bit of comfort when times felt dark. There was already a number of news accounts reporting the rappers death. I ran into my bedroom and quickly hopped onto YouTube. I thought that it must of been another one of those ‘fake news’ stories that Travis has shared without really knowing it’s true origins. My thumb stopped when I landed on a post by Travis Barker reading something along the lines of “RIP Mac Miller, taken too soon.” It was at that moment my phone battery died and I was left in a start of utter confusion and disbelief. And he was his music and what he did for hip hop will last the test of time.On the evening of September 7th, I was sipping a beer late in the evening, scrolling through Facebook with no real reason. You could say that Mac was something of a rapper’s rapper: JAY-Z tweeted about how great he was, Kendrick's TDE camp worked with him, and you can’t be anywhere near those guys unless you’re an amazing lyricist. Paak and The Internet, who he toured with, saw and recognised that in Mac. He was becoming a fully-fledged musician and well-rounded artist. He wasn’t just a guy that sampled beats and rapped over them. He definitely developed in terms of his musicianship, he was playing different instruments and working with notable musicians during the last few years.
I feel as an artist, Mac grew over the course of his career. When we get back to London, we can do an interview and a freestyle then.’ It was advice that really stuck with me. I’m cool with you, I like you, we can just chill. I was speaking to Mac and he said, ‘Look, Sem, we don’t have to do an interview every time we connect. At the time, I was always on standby to do interviews. We were at a festival in Switzerland and Mac was backstage. For me, it’s when I was DJing on tour with Nas. Amazing moments like that are why I first got into hip hop.Įveryone who ever met Mac has a great Mac Miller story to tell. I think the second one was my favourite of the two.
There was a moment during it where Mac tripped up a little and then corrected himself mid-flow and that’s a testament to his skill as an articulate lyricist to be able to adjust what he’s doing and flip it so he’s back on track and sounding on point. Then during the second freestyle, he rapped for nearly eight minutes. The first was special because I purposely chose instrumentals that I knew he would like, and Mac’s performance was more intense and animated as a response to this. He was so enthusiastic, down to earth, humble and funny a great person as well as an amazing artist.ĭuring his career, Mac did two freestyles for me at 1Xtra - one in May 2012 and another in June 2013. It was sold-out and I interviewed Mac before the show. I first met Mac at one of his early UK shows at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London during September 2011. It had a sort of innocence, a raw hip hop feel that was appealing to me.
#MAC MILLER KIDS SONG FOR FREE#
mixtape, released online for free in August 2010, I thought it was a really dope project. When I checked the rest of Mac’s K.I.D.S.