“Nike’s on my feet keep my cypher complete,” rhymed Nas through the earphones I used to avoid waking up my sleeping roommate. Late-night Internet surfing for new music was one of my favorite hobbies and tonight’s discovery was rapper Mac Miller, a recent graduate of Tayler Allderdice High School. The institution was just over three miles from the University of Pittsburgh dorm room where I sat nodding my head as I perused through his latest mixtape, the breakout K.I.D.S. Since then, Miller’s career has undergone a series of changes, leaving certain facets of his game behind. With far less money in my bank account, I too adapted to my surroundings, keeping Miller’s music in my ear throughout the journey.
“Take over the world when I’m on my Donald Trump shit! Look at all this money, ain’t that some shit!” I rapped from a London flat filled with cheap furniture and empty beer bottles. Doing my best to spread unwanted American culture while abroad in early 2011, I introduced my friends to Mac Miller and his infectious party raps as we enjoyed the nightlife of the British capital. At the time, Miller and fellow Pittsburgher Wiz Khalifa dominated my after-hours playlists and that seemed to be OK. As time went on, this lifestyle became less and less acceptable and so did Miller’s music.
‘90s Hip Hop will forever be my favorite genre of music, bar none. But at some point during my freshman year at Pitt I realized that pregaming to Gang Starr and Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth wasn’t exactly the cool thing to do. Miller represented a fun-loving, enjoyable new wave of rap that, for the most part, didn’t bother with conscious lyrics or overly complex beats. As time went on and I started caring more and more about my schoolwork – and the work I’d be doing after school ended – Miller began himself and his music more seriously as well.
During the summer between my junior and senior year at Pitt, I interned at The Shadow Lounge. Known as Pittsburgh’s preeminent Hip Hop venue, the space served as a hotbed for aspiring emcees and deejays like Miller, Khalifa and Gregg Gillis (better known as the mashup deejay Girl Talk). That summer, I met Miller for the first time during the release party for his Macadelicmixtape. The project represented a distinct change for Miller, whose debut studio album Blue Slide Parkwas panned by critics just six months before. It was more experimental, dramatically slowing the tempo and replacing party tracks with the first Kendrick Lamar verse I ever heard on “Fight The Feeling.” A new, darker Miller had arrived and while I chose to closely study this change, others around me started to lose interest.
The following year, Miller released his sophomore album Watching Movies With The Sound Off. Heavily influenced by his move to L.A., the effects of a number of drugs and the new crews he surrounded himself with (Odd Future and TDE), the album displayed Miller’s newly refined sound, which was increasingly growing more ominous. The Shadow Lounge had since closed and I was officially a college graduate who had once again distanced himself from party rap. However, most of my friends were far less interested in Miller’s new direction. Aligned with the themes of Golden Age Hip Hop – smart, thoughtful lyrics and sharp production, much of which came from Miller’s alter ego Larry Fisherman – Miller was now an artist so far removed from his early Easy Mac days. His 2014 project Faces was the final straw for many of my friends, who just a year out of college were ready to write Miller off for good.
2015 has presented us with yet another version of the Pittsburgh emcee, one with a rumored seven-figure major label record deal and album that once again redefines what it means to be a Miller fan. For the release of his latest album GO:OD AM, Miller returned home to the Steel City for a homecoming weekend of sorts. There was bowling, softball, the first pitch at the Pirates game, a Steelers win and a concert or two. Therefore, giving friends, family and fans a chance to bond with Miller as he awoke from a two-plus-year dream in some of the nation’s biggest cities.
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He may reside in Brooklyn but, Pittsburgh has a special place both in Miller’s heart and his music as evidenced on “When In Room.” And, as his music takes a more self-conscious turn, reflecting on past struggles with addiction and fame, it was only appropriate that Miller chose to celebrate his success in his less commercial hometown. His music may have faded from the radar of my college friends, but has now appeared as a bright spot for many Hip Hop fans. Ironically, some of which may likely disliked Miller’s former self. But if Miller has taught us anything, it’s that his music is style is constantly transforming.
