Rapper
Born: January 19, 1992;
Died: September 7, 2018
MAC Miller, who has died aged 26, was an American rapper with a huge following among a millennial audience, enough to propel his five full studio albums released since 2011 into the top five of the American charts and earn millions of YouTube plays.
As well as a musical inspiration, his life was the stuff of tabloid interest; for two years between 2016 and 2018 he was in a relationship with the pop singer Ariana Grande, while the drug addiction problems which he struggled with throughout his adult life apparently contributed to its premature end.
Baby-faced and heavily-tattooed, Miller’s raps were a study in contradiction, at once sweary odes to unfettered ambition – the money that he was making and the women he wanted to claim, both referred to in avaricious terms – and yet deeply connected to his own sense of self-doubt and the deeper psychology of his struggle with substances. The video for his recent song Self Care depicted a smoking Miller entombed in a coffin and smashing his way out, its lyrics alternating between the lure of sobriety and the tranquil oblivion of addiction.
One of his most popular songs, in particular, helped set the tone for the 2010s in America; named Donald Trump, 2011’s third single appeared to aspire to Trump’s wealth (“look at all this money / ain’t that some s*** / gonna take over the world when I’m on my Donald Trump s***”), inspiring first praise from Trump, and then angry legal threats over the use of his name. Although Miller seemed appreciative of Trump’s praise at the time, he later came out strongly against him when the businessman ran for president.
Born Malcolm James McCormick in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1992, Miller was the son of photographer Karen Meyers and architect Mark McCormick, and was raised in his father’s Jewish faith.
A promising and enthusiastic sportsperson and a self-taught singer and multi-instrumentalist – he began playing piano at the age of six – he decided to concentrate seriously on rapping at the age of 15. His earliest influence was Outkast’s 1998 record Aquemini, and other interests included A Tribe Called Quest, the Beastie Boys and Lauryn Hill, reflecting his interest in rap which bore tuneful, soulful roots and production.
Known initially as EZ Mac, Miller released his first mixtape of music in 2007 and came to local attention, including that of fellow Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa and Benjy Grinberg of the same city’s Rostrum Records. He released his first two albums (2011’s Blue Slide Park and 2013’s Watching Movies With the Sound Off) on Rostrum, and then moved to Warner Brothers and his own, REMember, for GO:OD AM (2015), The Divine Feminine (2016) and Swimming (2018).
Miller’s collaborations indicated his place in both rap and popular culture, with rap artists including Just Blaze, Vince Staples, Tyler the Creator, Ludacris and Thundercat all working in some way with him (or his production alias Larry Fisherman), while he also appeared on the remix of Scouting for Girls’ pop hit Moves Like Jagger, and on collaborative tracks with Pharrell Williams and Justin Bieber. His biggest individual credited hit as a writer was 2013’s The Way, a single by Ariana Grande, released three years before they became a couple.
DAVID POLLOCK
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