Mac Miller

• 1. Introduction

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  Blue Slide Park, an album released on the 8th of November 2011, sold 144,000 copies in its first week and landed at the top of the US Billboard 200. No debut album distributed outside the major label system had done that since Tha Dogg Pound's Dogg Food in 1995. The rapper behind it was Mac Miller, born Malcolm James McCormick in Pittsburgh in 1992. He was only 19. Seven years later he was dead at the age of 26, and by then he had changed his sound several times over. How does a teenager with no radio support reach number one? Who were Larry Fisherman, Larry Lovestein and Delusional Thomas? Why did the music keep arriving long after 2018?

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• 2. Pittsburgh Beginnings

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  Malcolm James McCormick was born on the 19th of January 1992 in Point Breeze, a neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His mother, Karen Meyers, was a photographer, and his father, Mark McCormick, was an architect. He had an older brother named Miller. The family was mixed in faith, with a Jewish mother and a Christian father, and he was raised Jewish and had a bar mitzvah. As a boy he played basketball, football, soccer and lacrosse. He attended Winchester Thurston School for a time and then graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School.

  At the age of 5, he received a musical keyboard as a Hanukkah gift. He later said, "I hooked that thing up and never stopped playing it." Entirely self-taught, he could play piano, guitar, drums and bass by the age of six. He began rapping at 14, and before that he had pictured himself as a singer. At 15 he made up his mind. In his words, "hip-hop is almost like a job," and once he realized that, sports and high school parties gave way to music.

  His first stage name was Easy Mac, sometimes written EZ Mac. Under it he released his first mixtape, But My Mackin' Ain't Easy, in 2007. In 2008 he teamed up with Pittsburgh rapper Beedie as The Ill Spoken, and the pair put out a mixtape called How High. They split soon afterward so that each could go solo. By 2009 he had become Mac Miller, and that year he released The Jukebox: Prelude to Class Clown and The High Life. At the 2010 Pittsburgh Hip Hop Awards he won 21 & Under of the Year, along with Best Hip Hop Video for "Live Free".

  His heroes included Big L, Lauryn Hill, the Beastie Boys, Outkast and A Tribe Called Quest. He also admired John Lennon enough to carry several Lennon tattoos, among them the musician's face and his song "Imagine". Closer to home, fellow Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa was a mentor. Miller called Wiz a big brother whose friendship went beyond music. That connection would soon steer his choice of record label.

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• 3. Independent Breakthrough

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  Benjy Grinberg, the president of Rostrum Records, first met Miller while recording with Wiz Khalifa at ID Labs. Grinberg offered advice at first but stayed out of the young rapper's career until Miller began work on K.I.D.S. Then he noticed a maturation in his sound and approach. Other record companies were circling by that point. Miller chose Rostrum because it sat in his hometown and was tied to Wiz Khalifa. He signed in July 2010, and K.I.D.S. came out that August.

  There was no radio airplay and no mainstream guest verse to lean on. Instead, Miller built his audience through social media engagement, digital sales and relentless touring. In 2011, XXL named him to its annual Freshman Class, alongside 10 other rappers that included Kendrick Lamar and Meek Mill.

  His fifth mixtape, Best Day Ever, arrived in March 2011. Its single "Donald Trump" became his first song on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 75, and it later went platinum with the Recording Industry Association of America. That same month came a six-track EP, On and On and Beyond, aimed at a new audience. Four of its songs had already appeared on his mixtapes. It entered the Billboard 200 at number 55. In October 2011 he marked one million Twitter followers with another mixtape, I Love Life, Thank You, released on the 14th of October.

  Blue Slide Park then produced three Hot 100 entries. "Smile Back" reached number 55, "Frick Park Market" reached 60, and "Party on Fifth Ave." reached 64. The album went gold in both the United States and Canada. Critics, however, were generally mixed. Miller's seventh mixtape, Macadelic, followed on the 23rd of March 2012, and its single "Loud" peaked at number 53. Many of its songs were about Nomi Leasure, a writer he had met in middle school. Their on-again, off-again relationship lasted seven years, until 2016.

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• 4. Alter Egos

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  Miller released an EP called You on the 21st of November 2012, and the name on the cover was not his own. It credited Larry Lovestein & The Velvet Revival, and instead of rapping he crooned over lounge jazz instrumentals. He explained the persona with a confession: "I've kinda have always had this random fantasy of being a seventy-year-old Lounge Jazz singer."

  Another pseudonym, Larry Fisherman, covered his work as a record producer, both for himself and for other artists. On the 4th of March 2013 he released Run-On Sentences, Volume One, a mixtape made up solely of instrumentals he had produced. A second volume followed on the 29th of December 2015. With Vince Staples he produced the mixtape Stolen Youth. On the 31st of October 2013 he self-produced and released an eponymous mixtape as Delusional Thomas.

  One project never made it out. In mid-2012 Miller premiered two songs produced by Pharrell Williams from a planned collaborative EP called Pink Slime. By August 2012, Miller said, at least ten tracks were finished. Despite a multi-year effort, the project stayed unreleased.

  He also built his own corner of the business. In early 2013 he founded the label imprint REMember Music, named for a deceased friend. It concentrated on Pittsburgh artists and on releases from his alter egos. MTV2 gave him a reality series, Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family, which premiered on the 26th of February 2013 and followed the making of his second studio album. He played a character named D'Andre in the film Scary Movie 5. Later in March 2013, he appeared on Ariana Grande's lead single "The Way". That song became his highest Hot 100 peak, at number nine, and went triple platinum.

  Pittsburgh took notice too. On the 20th of September 2013, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl gave him a key to the city and declared it "Mac Miller Day". That December he released the live album Live from Space, which paired nine songs from his Space Migration Tour with five studio tracks cut from his second album.

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• 5. Changing Sound

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  Early in his career, critics often filed Miller under "frat rap", because his lyrics dwelt on partying, marijuana, fame, money and women. His second studio album, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, arrived on the 18th of June 2013 and pushed in a different direction. Most critics praised its new psychedelic sound. It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with 102,000 copies sold. Singles included "S.D.S.", "Watching Movies" and "Goosebumpz", and guests included Schoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler, the Creator, Action Bronson and Jay Electronica. Miller called it very introspective and very personal, a record where he threw everything out there to see what happened.

  His Rostrum contract expired in January 2014. On the 11th of May 2014 he released Faces on his own, a 24-track mixtape that brought jazz into his music. Colin Stutz of Billboard described Miller ruminating over drugs, fame and his past. Pitchfork's Craig Jenkins called it his most consistently honest and personal work to date.

  In October 2014 he signed with Warner Bros. Records, which he picked because it was the most independent thinking company he met with. GO:OD AM, his first major label album, came out on the 18th of September 2015. It reached number four on the Billboard 200 with 87,000 units. The album went gold, and its single "Weekend", featuring Miguel, went platinum.

  Miller then turned to love as a subject. The Divine Feminine, released on the 16th of September 2016, had him singing nearly as much as rapping, over R&B, jazz and funk. Pitchfork found it succinct and refined. It debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 and at number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart with 48,000 units. From August 2016 to May 2018 he dated Ariana Grande.

  Swimming followed on the 3rd of August 2018, with Pitchfork hearing wistful soul and warm funk as he explored heartbreak and his own mental health. It entered at number three with 66,000 units, his fifth consecutive top-five album in the United States. Rolling Stone's Danny Schwartz heard rap, funk and trip-hop, and the magazine said Miller had shed his frat rap reputation. He had also been open about a harder subject, which ran through his lyrics.

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• 6. Addiction and Setbacks

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  Promethazine entered Miller's life during the Macadelic Tour in 2012, when he started taking it to manage stress. He later became addicted to lean, the drink made from it. Speaking to Complex in January 2013, he said he had been lost and that his friends could no longer look at him the same way. He quit in November 2012, before filming his reality show.

  The struggle did not end there. By 2014 he was taking drugs daily. He said the closing track on Faces, "Grand Finale", was supposed to be the last song he made on Earth. Looking back in 2017, he said he was "not on planet earth when he made Faces." In August 2015 he told Billboard he was definitely way healthier but not completely sober. In a documentary from February 2016 he said he "hated" being sober. By October 2016 he had been sober for three months and reported a better mood and undiminished creativity. In April 2017 he described himself as "living regularly".

  Trouble with the law and with copyright ran alongside. In February 2011, on tour in Upstate New York, Miller and his friends were arrested for marijuana possession and spent a night in jail. He said the case was settled. In July 2012, producer Lord Finesse filed a $10 million lawsuit against Miller, Rostrum Records and DatPiff. It concerned a sample of his song "Hip 2 Da Game" in the 2010 mixtape track "Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza". The two sides settled out of court in December 2012 and kept the terms confidential.

  In 2013, Donald Trump criticized Miller on social media for using his name in the hit single, called it "illegal" and hinted at legal action. A brief public spat followed, but no lawsuit was ever filed. In March 2015, the band Aquarian Dream sued for $150,000 over a sample of their song "Yesterday (Was So Nice Today)" in "Therapy", from Faces.

  May 2018 brought the most serious charge. Miller crashed into a utility pole and fled the scene with two passengers. Police traced his license plate to his address, and he confessed when officers arrived. He was released on $15,000 bail. In August 2018 he was charged with two counts of driving under the influence. He died before his arraignment, and the charges were dropped.

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• 7. Death and Aftermath

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  NPR released Miller's Tiny Desk Concert on the 6th of August 2018, and on the 3rd of September he played a small promotional show at Hotel Cafe in Hollywood. Both supported Swimming, and they were his last public performances. On the 7th of September 2018, his personal assistant found him unresponsive at his home in Studio City. The assistant called 911 and gave CPR until paramedics arrived, but Miller was pronounced dead at the scene at 11:51 a.m. Pacific time. He had been due to shoot a music video that day. His Swimming Tour was set to begin in October.

  A traditional Jewish funeral was held, and he was buried at Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh. His will named his mother, father and brother as beneficiaries. On the 5th of November 2018, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office ruled the death an accidental overdose caused by mixed drug toxicity from fentanyl, cocaine and alcohol.

  In September 2019, investigators arrested three men. One of them, Cameron James Pettit, allegedly sold Miller counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl two days before his death. Miller had asked for Percocet, cocaine and Xanax. Investigators believe he snorted the laced pills. The three were indicted on conspiracy charges and on distributing drugs that resulted in a death. On the 18th of April 2022, one defendant received ten years in prison. On the 17th of May 2022, the supplier received seventeen and a half years. Pettit was released from prison on the 11th of October 2024, and his sentence length is unknown.

  Thousands of fans held a vigil on the 11th of September 2018 at Blue Slide Park in Pittsburgh, the place that inspired his debut album title. It remains a site of remembrance. On the 31st of October 2018, Mac Miller: A Celebration of Life took place at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, with friends and collaborators performing or sending messages. Proceeds went to the new Mac Miller Circles Fund, which supports youth arts and community-building programs. It had raised over $700,000 by January 2019. In May 2019, the renamed Mac Miller Fund awarded its first grants, including $50,000 to MusiCares to launch a Mac Miller Legacy Fund for young musicians facing substance abuse.

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• 8. Posthumous Albums

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  In June 2019, Miller's estate began approving new releases, starting with two collaborative singles. "Time" featured Free Nationals and Kali Uchis, and "That's Life" featured 88-Keys and Sia. His family announced the first posthumous album, Circles, on the 8th of January 2020, and it came out on the 17th of January. Miller had been making it as a companion to Swimming. Jon Brion, who worked with him on both records, finished the production.

  Circles debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with 164,000 units, his biggest album week. Its single "Good News" reached number 17 on the Hot 100, his highest peak as a lead artist. Another song had already made a late climb. After his death, "Self Care" rose to number 33. Swimming was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.

  Between 2020 and 2023 the estate re-released his mixtapes K.I.D.S., Faces and I Love Life, Thank You commercially. Tenth anniversary editions of K.I.D.S. and Watching Movies with the Sound Off added previously unreleased bonus tracks.

  The second posthumous album, Balloonerism, was released on the 17th of January 2025. It had been recorded in 2014, around the time Faces came out. Its animated video work was put forward for awards in 2025 and 2026, including Best Animation at the Berlin Music Video Awards and at the UK Music Video Awards.

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