R.I.P. Mac Miller

Malcolm James McCormick was born on January 19th, 1992 and has past on September 8th of 2018. Mac began his career at the early age of 15 under the name “EZ Mac” releasing “My Mackin’ ain’t easy” in 2007. In early 2010, Mac was signed to Rostrum Records. Interest was starting to really be shown in him when he was working on the K.I.D.S mixtape, but he decided to stay at Rostrum because of it’s close location and association with Wiz Khalifa. At this point in his career, Mac was really rising in popularity and selling out shows. He then dropped “Best Day Ever” which had a few very popular singles, among these the very popular “Donald Trump”, which is still a popular song.
IN 2011, it was clear that MAc was here to stay when his project “Blue SLide Park” dropped and charted 1 on the billboard 200. Throughout his career, Mac was often praised for his ability to change his sound so drastically yet remain a consistent successful artist. The jump from Blue slide park to his next studio album was huge in term of art style. Mac went from Frat-boy style rap to a much more psychedelic sound with his album Watching Movies With the Sound off. All Mac Miller’s music has drug and alcohol references but WMWTSO is very drug influenced and could, by definition, be classified as “acid rap”. His next project directly after was even more different. It was titled Delusional Thomas and drew heavy influence from horror core rap. It is sang from the point of view of Delusional Thomas, an alias Mac created that is high pitched and much darker in tone then Mac’s other music. Not many artists can stray away from their sound so creatively and still perform enjoyable music.
My personal favorite project of Mac’s released right after DT, Faces. It, much like WMWTSO, is very drug influenced and is a very clear cut example of “acid rap”. Its extremely hypnotic and the story telling that is featured is some of Mac’s best. It has extensive samples and is the most cohesive project ive ever listened to in my opinion. Soon after this Mac dropped his album, GO:OD AM which is also very drug-influenced but more upbeat then his past projects. IN hindsight, his overdose was very predictable. He often referenced his own death and overdose in his music. prophetic.
The saddest part of Mac Miller’s death is the change that seemed to occur in his life in his music. The divine Feminine was much poppier then his old music and even though it had it’s more melancholic tracks like all Mac’s projects, it indicated a change. This is also around the time that Mac Miller was dating and very obviously in love with Ariana Grande. Even after their break-up, Mac’s latest album swimming seemed very positive and it seemed like he had changed his ways to a degree. It was very heavily based on healing and acceptance rather then self deprecation, drugs, and negativity
Mac passed around a month after Swimming released. It may not seem like a shock when you hear his lyrics such as “Ease the pain and the battle that’s within me. Sniff the same shit that got Whitney” and “a drug habit like Philip Hoffman will probably put me in a coffin,” but based off how his life was seeming, Mac’s death seemed out of nowhere. Mac was very self-aware and often though about the downfalls of fame, drug use, and death. yet his death still affects all his fans just as the death of a friend would. His music touched many and his life was filled with purpose. It was discovered for sure today that he overdosed on fetanyl and cocaine
RIP MAC MILLER

Competition Breeds Greatness

https://www.complex.com/music/best-rappers-in-their-20s-2018/

Within any craft, there is always debate on who the greatest is at any given moment, especially a craft as popularly recognized as rap. The frequent “who’s best” conversation is a huge motivator for rappers to improve their product, along with the other obvious motivator, more money. It’s also important to note that the “greatest” is not necessarily the same as the most successful. There are many aspects one can specialize in and strive towards in the rap game because at the end of the day, music will always ultimately be subjective.

Among these various aspects are things such as commercial success, overall flow, rhyme schemes, consistency, quantity, party “bangers”, etc, so to holistically rank rappers without a specified niche, is in my opinion, wrong. The complex article attached is an example of this. Firstly the article gives no real justifications for its ordering and seems to pander to it’s projected demographic. Tyler the Creator is labeled the best rapper in their 20’s right now and this is very arguable. His last album displayed his progress as an artist but it also branched away from the rap genre, and is completely different then his previous works which disapointed a lot of die-hard fans who were a fan of his original sound. Now this isn’t to say he isn’t an incredibly talented artist but he hasn’t done nearly enough this year to merit this ranking especially compared to other artists who made the list. His album came out last year and all he’s released since then were some singles and previously used instrumentals, which were good, but were shadowed by other artist’s work. The article also lacks any type of explanation on what they think makes an artist the best. Is it influence? Is it purely music quality? Is it success? Reception by fans? Based off the artists and “explanations” listed it could go any which way.

Overall, the article seems out of touch with who is currently really the best. For example, from last year’s list to this year’s list Chance the rapper’s postion has increased yet he has done nothing noteworthy this year aside from releasing 4 singles, which had maybe one that was well received, and announced his new album with Kanye which still doesn’t have a release date. His latest album was a commercial success but was perceived as “okay” by fans especially in relation to his album before that “Acid Rap” which has a cult following and has basically what got Chance the Rapper into most people’s playlists. The article argues he is a household name now but what does that have to do with rapping. Also, i would be willing to bet that if you asked someone who doesn’t follow rap if they knew who he is, You’ll likely get less then 50% knowing of him, nevermind having listened to his music.

While I think general rankings are useless, I hold the belief that there should definitely be rankings at any given time in order to motivate rappers to strive towards their best art. If rappers, and in a more general sense, artists were not compared and contrasted then they would have no reason to strive towards greater goals. Art is best when it is made out of necessity, and for some rappers there is nothing more necessary then upholding their pride within the rap game. “Falling off” is also a great fear of rappers which motivates them to continue producing quality material as they do not want to seem like they lost what they have had.

Competition within anything does have it’s pitfalls however. Any type of competition can breed pressure and in some cases it may be extreme and will hinder an artists body of work. This occurs often when rappers have highly anticipated albums. High anticipation can make or break an album. “Astroworld” is likely the most commercially successful album of the year even after having 2 years of built-up hype, and then you have an album like “Carter 5” that came out today which ,while early to say definitely, has not lived up to the expectations surrounding it. While pressure should not be a reason that prevents competition, it should be accounted for when considering an album as a whole.

Competition has many facets to it that must be accounted for and is an essential component of hip-hop. Without the more intense and monitored competition within early hip-hip, the genre would not have been able to grow and evolve to the music form that it is today. Due to music’s growth there is some form of hip-hop that can fit anyone’s taste if they search deep enough.

Rappers are people too!

Rappers, like other celebrities, are treated as if they are the public’s object rather then individuals with personal lives. We often are quick to judge them and hold them to incredibly high standards. We also often jump to conclusions based off snippets of their words and actions without ever really knowing the true picture. People are misquoted daily by the press in order to attract more media attention. A recent example of this is TMZ’s misreporting of a quarrel between Travis Scott and Frank Ocean.

TMZ reportes how Ocean was suing Scott because of a conflict about the inclusion of their song “Carousel” on Travis Scott’s recent album “Astroworld.” The details were unclear but it was alluded that it was an LGBT issue and a production miscommunication. Ocean quickly shut this down on his tumblr where he noted his views on the issue and his “beef” with Travis was quickly squashed.

This is just a small example of how the press twists things and takes things out of context in order to get clicks. Although there was no substance to their claim, TMZ caused this information to be spread on multiple outlets with more nonsense information that was just made up by the reporter in order to gain traction. If this were done to someone who was not famous and wealthy, people would be less likely to stand for it and call out these actions out but rappers do not have this luxury.

Mac Miller’s death has highlighted this significantly as both he and his ex-girlfriend Ariana Grande have been receiving non-stop hate online for their actions. Which is nonsensical, as the public really has no clue what happens between individuals, just as I have no clue about my classmate’s, teachers, and even friends personal life. Miller, deceased, has gotten a slew of comments blaming him for his death and talking down about him because of his alleged drug addiction which again is just an assumption of the public, while his ex, grande, has also gotten hate and blame for Miller’s death. This is especially terrible for her as she has to suffer the death of a loved one and then go online to see people blaming her for this death. It is also not given the proper response since she is a celebrity. Had she been a regular person and had this comments made towards her, it would simply not be stood for, yet in certain circles this behavior towards her is encouraged.

People often wish for fame but neglect to think about what comes with it. The public can be a great thing but it can also be utterly disgusting at times.

Pusha T Vs Drake

The most relevant mainstream rap “beef” of the year so far is undeniably the feud between Terrence Thornton (Pusha T) and Aubrey Drake Graham (Drake) with Kanye West being caught in the middle of the sparring. Although the public following of the beef only began when Pusha T’s latest album “Daytona” released in May, the squabble’s foundation dates back as far as 15 years.

Back when Pusha T was still going by the stage name “Clipse”, he was featured on a Bryan Christopher Williams (birdman) song called “What Happened to That Boy” which was produced by The Neptunes which was comprised of Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams. Allegedly, there was a dispute over payment, which is apparently common for Birdman, which lead to Williams never again working with Cash Money which is Birdman’s record label. Pusha T evidently did not like this and sided with Pharrell Williams which was highlighted when Pusha dissed Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. (Lil Wayne), who is a rapper under the Cash Money label, for blatantly stealing William’s style. Williams had a skater meets hip-hop aesthetic long before Lil Wayne was even in the game and was the first to rock certain brands of clothing, specifically the very popular A Bathing Ape. Lil Wayne began to rock BAPE and even asked Williams for some gear from his own brand Billionaire Boy’s Club to which Williams refused. In response to this, Pusha T sent subliminal shots at Lil wayne on his song “Mr. Me Too” where he said among other comments “N***a bite the style from the shoes to the watches.” In response to this Wayne took shots at Williams in a cover story with complex where he said “That n***a wore BAPEs and y’all thought he was weird. I wore it and y’all thought it was hot” which made the relations between Cash Money and everyone else affiliated even more tense.

Pusha T and Lil wayne continued to beef in the years that followed continuously throwing disse’s at one another in various songs and interviews. Drake inherited Lil Wayne’s beef as Wayne is the person who kickstarted Drake’s career and they both were on the Cash Money label. In 2011, Pusha T dropped “Don’t F**k with Me” which featured a sample from Drake’s “Dreams Money Can buy” where Drake allegedly subliminally dissed Pusha.