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The passing of one’s favorite artist can really break you down. Silence from them makes you appreciate all of their old music or even the smallest bit of creative content of any kind all the more.
When it comes to Mac Miller, the man left a legacy that was really still only just starting to hit it’s prime. We watched him grow from a young Pittsburg teenager on “K.I.D.S” during the birth of the Soundcloud era to the masterpiece that was “Swimming” with only greatness in between.
We saw Mac, and his alter ego Larry Fisherman, as happy and as low as ever with hip hop legends like Schoolboy Q and Vince Staples by his side among many, many others that he shaped and grew with. But one constant through it all was his consistency that he helped and touched all of us with in his lyrics and sound both when no one was there, and when we were all ready to party and kick it with tracks like “Party On Fifth Ave.”
September 7th, 2018 was a sad day for his fans and music lovers everywhere. I envy those that were lucky enough to see him live.
Recently Mac’s estate released “Good News” on January 9th with the announcement of his first (and presumably last) posthumous album entitled Circles. And as we listen to the new album today, let’s remember the legacy this man left behind as truly one of the most talented artists of our generation.
He talks about how everyone needed him to stay, but how he needed a “break” to stay in his own head. He addresses the media and says they only like to hear “good news, that’s all they wanna hear, no they don’t like it when I'm down”, only wanting to hear about Mac’s music even when he’s down.
While yes this is sad this isn’t the first we’ve heard Mac address his feelings on a track about fame and the mental toll it takes on an individual. You can look back as far as “Fight the Feeling” with Kendrick Lamar and Iman Omari, while he raps hard he mixes in that “I'm a Beatle to these young kids, But sometimes I be feelin' like a needle to these young kids”, expressing the pressure of this fame and the weight he feels guilty of at an early stage of his career. A double-edged sword that plagues even the most talented of musical talents in our world.
Now that we receive more artwork from him after his passing, I’m excited to see what was on Mac’s mind in the studio while he recorded this last and final album.
Follow for more article updates @engmtcent on Instagram and lets all keep swimming and celebrate this album together like Mac Miller would’ve asked of us. We miss you Mac.