![]() ![]() Good A:M saw Mac being more experimental with production, song construction, and overall concept. Unlike Mac Miller’s projects at the time, ambition for him came in the form of song construction since he maintained leveled hip-hop patterns throughout the first half of the decade. Mac isn’t new to singing, but he put it on the back burner since it wasn’t one of his strengths. Whether we are listening to his darkened thoughts, clogged in the back of his mind like on “Grand Finale” off his Faces, or remedy an argument like on “We” off The Divine Feminine, we’re left in awe by how personable he can be. But like his storytelling skills, Mac lets his voice express vulnerability since it allows for more emotional range than rapping. Mac Miller is a standard falsetto without much range in pitch, with his voice only going deeper. It speaks to the vulnerability, as it is a standard for love ballads, which in turn mirrors the vulnerability we hear from his singing. He has been able to create cohesive and intricate music, as his focus remained on sonic motifs - Macadellic had psychedelic overtones, K.I.D.S had boom-bap made by weed smokers, and The Divine Feminine has whimsical piano keys. And Mac is privy to this, as he didn’t dabble with production until later in his career. For an artist, it is sometimes hard to create unison between sound motifs when using different producers as their input is varied on their strengths. Mac Miller has always been a gifted musician however, after Watching Movies With The Sound Off, Mac Miller would shift almost all the production to others. To this day, I still firmly believe it, despite knowing that Mac had something better lying dormant in the crevices of his mind that we will never get to hear. I remember when I first heard The Divine Feminine - immediately, I galavanted about proclaiming this as Mac’s opus as an artist. The five years since haven’t felt like five years. For Mac Miller, The Divine Feminine is the latter. Like I’ve mentioned previously, I’m someone who holds superlatives at a low - save for the few - some astound me from the length since original release or the feeling of time in-between. Overall, Mac Miller’s “Good A:M” lands the rapper back in control of his destiny with a record better than most releases this year, so far.There aren’t many rappers who immediately jump to me to listen to their work within minutes of release - Kanye, Common, and Mac Miller, are, and were, some of the very few I have a watchful ear. He keeps featured artists to a minimum: frequent collaborator Ab-Soul, Based God, Miguel (for his usual schtick) and Lil B, whose logic defying, oddball ballad manages to not be nails-on-chalkboard bad. Miller does not make a single mistake with his lyrics, even when admirably shuffling between flows varying from UGK-era bombast and Kendrick Lamar-esque precision. ![]() Weak lyrics can be stashed throughout Max Martin’s beats (The Weeknd’s “I Can’t Feel My Face”) and repetitive lyrics can be ignored on Dr. Perhaps no other music genre depends more heavily on the actual talent of its artists than rap. The album is a potpourri of melodic harmonies, dwindling piano keys and genre-crossing beats headlined by an assertive Miller. The result was the frustratingly inconsistent content of “Watching Movies With The Sound Off.” Pockmarked with experimental monotone mumbling, it momentarily rendered Miller a pseudo intellectual and left critics and listeners wondering if he was on the brink of irrelevancy. The X-axis reflects the consequences of Miller’s move to Los Angeles and affiliation with the city’s rap acts Odd Future and Black Hippy. Miller never shies away from addressing his history with drugs in both his personal and professional life, but the tone in which he addresses these issues vary. ![]() On the Y-axis, his early years of making music, including his first independent album “Blue Slide Park,” are marked with influences of 90s boom-bap: recycled Lord Finesse instrumentals, Nas samples and a love of weed. Miller’s career is a distinct graph of phases. ![]() Born Malcolm McCormick, Miller made his major debut with “Good A:M” after releasing half a dozen mixtapes, two independent albums and even an instrumental album under the name of his alter-ego, Larry Fisherman. Pittsburgh native Mac Miller has been rapping since 2008, initially performing under the alias Easy Mac. ![]()
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