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Last week we lost a good one. On September 7th, Mac Miller died of an apparent overdose. Normally I don’t really bat an eye when a drug-related celebrity death pops up in the news because it has just become an all-too-common occurrence today (which, as I write these words, I realize is a depressing state of reality to live in). In fact, when my buddy texted the group chat with the news, all I could respond with was, “Probably drugs.” I wish I was wrong, and I wish it wasn’t so easy for me to write something off like that because it is a tragedy. But at the time, that was all I could muster. I didn’t want to believe it, but I wasn’t in the least bit surprised that another celebrity had an addiction swallow them up but not spit them back out. And now he is gone.
Like many of you out there, Mac Miller, Cam Rellim, Macadelic, or whatever you knew him by had a huge spot in my heart. It was almost automatic whenever I grabbed the aux cord from the years 2011-2013 I was putting on something from Mac. Ask any of my buddies back in college. If Cush was in the DJ booth, it was either Chiddy Bang or Mac Miller. Countless nights were spent running pong tables with Blue Slide Park bumping through the speakers at 134 College Ave. Many study sessions involved a heavy dose of Mac’s voice filling my Skullcandys in the 2nd floor of Fogler library. My one and only little brother in the fraternity connected with me thanks to our love of Halo and the smash hit “Donald Trump.” We’d spend hours shooting each other in the face as Mac played in the background. The song I put on to test my first set of after-market speakers was “Loud.” To say Mac defined my taste in hip-hop music is an understatement. And now he is gone.
At his peak, there wasn’t a dude on earth I would have rather been. I mean, maybe LeBron James. But LeBron never dated Ariana Grande, so I’d still give the edge to Mac Miller. What made him so likable wasn’t that he was massively successful or that he was dating an absolute bombshell. It was because he was genuine. His music was real. Mac never fronted as a thug or some hard-nosed gangbanger. He knew he was just a white-ass dude from Pittsburgh who loved hip-hop and loved life. His passion for both of those came through in every track he put out. He may have been a couple years younger than me, but I looked up to him. Mac had the world at his fingertips by the age of 20 and was destined for great things for years to come. And now he is gone.
I won’t sit here and pretend to know what it’s like to be rich and famous. I could scream from my soapbox that these celebrities are fucked in the head because of all the opportunities they have and that’s why we see so many of them ruining their lives with drugs. While to an extent that may be true, addiction is a disease. Mac’s struggle with drugs was well-documented. For as much as the dude loved the world, there was clearly a struggle going on inside of him. And now he is gone.
Mac Miller’s death hit closer to me than any celebrity death has in the past. The news hit me with a powerful combination of nostalgia and the realization of just how prevalent mental illness is. Addiction is no joke. Mental illness is no joke. And if you are out there and need someone to talk to, reach out. Don’t turn to self-medication, because the track record of success in that case is non-existent.
Mac may be gone, but his music lives on. May his struggle be a warning and his music be an inspiration. Today, and every day after, I will live my life by these words.
No matter where life takes me, find me with a smile
Pursuit to be happy, only laughing like a child
I never thought life would be this sweet
It got me cheesing from cheek to cheek
And I ain’t gonna wait for nothing cause that just ain’t my style
Life couldn’t get better, this gon’ be the best day ever.-Mac Miller
Rest in peace, Mac. You will be missed..
Image via Wikimedia Commons
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@207Cush
K.I.D.S and Best Day Ever would inevitably be played every time me and my friends drank while growing up. Losing someone who was basically the soundtrack to my high school years hits pretty hard
Regardless of what the namesake ended up turning into, Donald Trump still a banger, that beat is fire and the flow on point
Dude was an oracle
Thank you very much for the tribute, Cush. I was first introduced to Pittsburgh rap as a senior in high school when my sister took me to a Wiz Khalifa show at a Carnegie Mellon fraternity party. I remember buying Wiz’s “Flight School” mixtape from a young Mac Miller outside of the venue and he included one of his own CDs for my listening pleasure.
It was crazy how his music seemed to grow with our generation. He always produced the perfect tracks to fit the differing moods throughout high school, college, and post grad life.
It always made me wonder if his life would be different had he stayed in Pittsburgh. LA obviously had much more opportunity but the pressure has cannibalized far too many young stars. RIP, Mac.
Party on Fifth Ave was the anthem of my senior year in college. RIP, Mac, and thanks for the memories (and sometimes, lack thereof).
We were all Mac, Mac was all of us
As alum of the University of Pittsburgh, I can attest that Mac’s presence on our campus was even that much more prominent than other schools… being from the area, he routinely performed live shows on campus and throughout Pittsburgh and his tracks would be found at any given party in South Oakland at any given time. As the ‘DJ’ of our fraternity parties, I also had a fair share of Mac ready to go at all times.
You said it best, he was a goofy white kid from a nicer part of Pittsburgh and he knew it and embraced it and we as a city loved him for it. Still devastated by this news as I still have Blue Slide Park playing on repeat at work. There is actually a vigil occurring tonight at the actual Blue Slide Park in Pittsburgh and there have been talks to rename the park after him. RIP Mac
You hit the nail on the head. For me his death hits close to home because, even though I didn’t know him I felt like I did, you know? I’m sure everyone can relate to that. His music was a large part of everyone’s lives. I’ll forever ask for lettuce and tomato, bitch, on my sandwiches. RIP Mac.
The news of his death literally stopped me in my tracks as I walked to my car. This is the first celebrity death that caused me to be actually sad and wonder why. I actually downloaded his now last album a few days prior but had yet to listen to it. One of his best
Thanks for writing this. His best music was yet to come but he left behind more than enough for a lifetime.
It’s a shame great artists are tormented souls. It’s the same story for many before him.
I loved his mixtapes as a college student, and his music grew as I did. He transformed from a rap artist to a musician. I love finding videos of him vibing out on the piano.