Malcolm James McCormick, best known by his stage name Mac Miller, is an American rapper
from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
He is also a noted record producer under the pseudonym Larry Fisherman.
Miller is also becoming known for taking on multiple alter-egos, under the aliases Delusional
Thomas and Larry Lovestein & The Velvet Revival, respectively.
In early 2010, Miller signed a record deal with Pittsburgh-based indie record label Rostrum
Records.
He subsequently began recording his debut studio album Blue Slide Park, and released
it on November 8, 2011.
The album went on to debut at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, making it the
first independently-distributed debut album to top the chart since Tha Dogg Pound's 1995
album, Dogg Food.
Miller's second album, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, was released on June 18, 2013.
Early life Malcolm James McCormick was born on January
19, 1992, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Karen Meyers, a photographer, and Mark
McCormick, an architect.
His father is Christian and his mother is Jewish; Miller was raised Jewish and had a
Bar Mitzvah.
He was raised in the Point Breeze part of Pittsburgh.
Miller attended Winchester Thurston School and Taylor Allderdice High School.
In high school, Miller decided to focus on his hip hop career, later noting, "Once I
hit 15, I got real serious about it and it changed my life completely ... I used to be
into sports, play all the sports, go to all the high school parties.
But once I found out hip-hop is almost like a job, that's all I did."
Miller, a self-taught musician, plays piano, guitar, drums, and bass.
Career 2007–2010: Career beginnings
Miller first started rapping at the age of fourteen.
Before that, he wanted to be a singer-songwriter.
Prior to changing his name to Mac Miller, he was known as EZ Mac and released the mixtape
But My Mackin' Ain't Easy in 2007 at the age of fifteen.
Miller was also part of rap group The Ill Spoken together with fellow Pittsburgh rapper,
Beedie.
The Ill Spoken released the mixtape How High in 2008.
In 2009 Mac Miller released two mixtapes The Jukebox: Prelude to Class Clown and The High
Life before getting signed to Rostrum Records.
In 2009 at age 17, he made it to the final four in Rhyme Calisthenics, the MC competition
at Shadow Lounge.
In early 2010, Miller signed with Rostrum Records.
Rostrum president Benjy Grinberg met Miller while recording with Wiz Khalifa at ID Labs.
Although Grinberg started giving Miller advice, he didn't show any interest in getting involved
with his career until the artist began work on the K.I.D.S.
mixtape, when, as he later told HitQuarters, Grinberg "noticed a maturation in his sound
and approach to his music."
By that point Miller had started attracting interest from different record companies but
chose Rostrum due to its location in his hometown and association with Wiz Khalifa.
K.I.D.S.
was released by the label in August 2010.
The mixtape was inspired by the movie Kids.
A significant breakthrough came in late 2010 when Miller embarked on his first tour, the
Incredibly Dope Tour, selling out every location.
In 2010, he won two awards at the Pittsburgh hip hop awards.
2011–12: Blue Slide Park and other releases
Miller's fifth release was the mixtape, Best Day Ever featuring the single "Donald Trump"
and hit songs "Wear My Hat" and "All Around The World".
The mixtape featured mainstream producers such as Just Blaze, 9th Wonder, and Chuck
Inglish.
On November 22, 2010 his first single Knock Knock premiered its video on YouTube.
On March 29, 2011, he released an EP called On And On And Beyond.
The six-track work was produced by Rostrum Records.
On July 5, 2011, Miller announced the title of his first album Blue Slide Park on his
YouTube channel, set for a Fall release.
In September 2011 it was revealed that Miller would release a mixtape titled 92 Til Infinity
hosted by DJ Jazzy Jeff prior to the release of Blue Slide Park.
However, the release did not happen, and it was since then left in planning.
Miller featured on Maroon 5's remix of their hit song "Moves Like Jagger".
On October 14, 2011, Mac Miller released a 13 song mixtape called I Love Life, Thank
You, featuring Sir Michael Rocks of The Cool Kids, Talib Kweli, and Bun B. On November
2011, Blue Slide Park debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200 with first week sales
of 144,000 copies.
This was the first independently distributed debut to take the number one spot on the Billboard
albums chart since Tha Dogg Pound’s 1995 release Dogg Food.
In 2011 Miller was one of eleven rappers featured in XXL magazine's Freshman Class of 2011.
In 2011, his first TV appearance took place in the VH1 show Single Ladies; he played a
fictionalized version of himself that succeeded in selling one of his mixtapes to one of the
main characters.
Also in 2011, he was a part of MTV Jams Fab Five artists.
On February 15, 2012 Mac Miller uploaded a trailer on YouTube for his long anticipated
music video "Missed Calls".
It was released on his official YouTube channel on June 22, 2012.
On March 23, 2012, Mac Miller released his seventh mixtape called Macadelic.
He released "Loud" as a single off the mixtape as well as making a music video.
"Loud" peaked at #53 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Miller also released a video for "Thoughts From A Balcony".
In June 2012 Mac Miller premiered the song "Onaroll" available on YouTube.
"Onaroll" is performed by Mac Miller and produced by Pharrell Williams, from a future collaboration
EP titled Pink Slime.
On August 7, 2012 Miller released a further single from "Pink Slime", "Glow", available
for free download.
On September 1, Miller released another free song called "PlaneCarBoat" which features
West Coast rapper Schoolboy Q and was produced by himself.
On November 21, 2012 Miller released an iTunes exclusive EP entitled You under the name Larry
Lovestein & The Velvet Revival.
Rather than rap, the EP features Miller crooning over lounging jazz instrumentals.
2012–present: Watching Movies with the Sound Off
On October 14, Miller announced Pink Slime would be released before the end of 2012 and
that his second album, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, will be released in early 2013.
Watching Movies With the Sound Off is set to feature guest appearances from Schoolboy
Q, Ab-Soul, Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler, the Creator, Action Bronson and Jay Electronica.
When speaking of the album Miller said that it is "very introspective and very personal
so it’s kind of throwing it all out there and seeing what happens."
He also announced his plans to finally release 92 Til Infinity with DJ Jazzy Jeff in early
2013 prior to his release.
Mac Miller is currently featured on a six-episode reality series titled Mac Miller and the Most
Dope Family on MTV2.
It features the production of Watching Movies With the Sounds Off and premiered on February
26, 2013.
The first trailer was released on January 20, 2013.
On March 4, 2013 Miller released a new mixtape solely featuring instrumentals made by Miller
titled, Run-On Sentences Vol. 1 under his production alias "Larry Fisherman".
On March 9, he would announce the first single from Watching Movies with the Sound Off to
be "Somebody Do Somethin'" and to release soon.
He premiered a snippet of the song of the second episode of his reality show.
On May 2, 2013, he announced via UStream and Twitter that Watching Movies with the Sound
Off would be released on, June 18, 2013.
The album was met with generally positive reviews upon its release, with most critics
praising his new psychedelic sound.
The album also received commercial success debuting at number 3 on the Billboard Hot
100 and selling 101,000 copies in its first week.
The album spawned three singles; "S.D.S.", "Watching Movies" and "Goosebumpz".
Mac Miller started his own record label in early 2013, REMember Music, named after a
friend who died.
He also fully produced Odd Future affiliate Vince Staples' mixtape, Stolen Youth.
During October 2013, Miller toured Europe with fellow rappers Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz.
On October 31, 2013, Mac Miller released a new self-produced mixtape named Delusional
Thomas.
On December 17, 2013, Miller released his first live album, Live from Space.
Following that, he plans to begin working with Pharrell again on their collaboration
EP Pink Slime to be released during 2014.
He is also currently working on four separate projects, that he already has at least seven
songs done on each.
He told MTV that they include his next solo "Mac Miller album," and it had came together
by accident.
On January 14, 2014, Mac Miller announced he was no longer signed to Rostrum Records.
On May 11, 2014, Miller released his tenth solo mixtape, Faces.
Influences Mac Miller includes Big L, Lauryn Hill, the
Beastie Boys, Outkast, and A Tribe Called Quest among his influences.
He also has a close relationship with fellow Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa, saying "Wiz
has been a big brother to me with this music thing so far.
Our relationship is beyond music.
He really is just my homie, whether I will be making music or not."
Personal life Miller has said that he became addicted to
combination of promethazine and codeine known as "purple drank" or "lean." which he began
taking to manage the stress he was enduring during his Macadelic Tour in 2012.
In January 2013, Miller told Complex:
I love lean; it’s great.
I was not happy and I was on lean very heavy.
I was so fucked up all the time it was bad.
My friends couldn’t even look at me the same.
I was lost.
At the time of Miller's addiction, his childhood friend, Jimmy Murton, said: "I saw him in
that mentality I remember being in—you’re getting fucked up because you feel like you
need to.
You’re trying to get away from everything.
For how much he was drinking, it’s unbelievable that he stopped.
It’s definitely one of the most impressive things he’s ever done."
Miller quit taking promethazine in November 2012, before he started the shooting of his
upcoming reality show, Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family.
Miller was in a long term relationship with a girl he met in middle school for four years
until April 2013.
Many of the songs on his mixtape Macadelic were about their relationship.
Legal issues In February 2011, while on tour in Upstate
New York, Miller and his friends were arrested for possession of marijuana for which they
had to spend the night in jail.
The case was settled.
In June 2012, producer Lord Finesse filed a $10 million lawsuit against Mac Miller,
Rostrum Records and DatPiff for the use of a sample of Finesse's song "Hip 2 Da Game"
used in Miller's 2010 mixtape song "Kool-Aid and Frozen Pizza", even though the song was
not commercially released and Finesse was given credit for the sample from the beginning.
A case can be made that the song "made money through YouTube ads and Lord Finesse could
be entitled to some of those, but instead Finesse believes that his beat has been instrumental
to all of Mac's success."
This was done even though the song is itself based on an Oscar Peterson sample, which he
himself never paid for.
In January 2013 the lawsuit was settled outside of court with actual legal results not revealed.
Discography
K.I.D.S Best Day Ever
Blue Slide Park Macadelic
Watching Movies with the Sound Off Delusional Thomas
Tours The Incredibly Dope Tour
Blue Slide Park Tour Macadelic Tour
Under the Influence of Music Tour The Space Migration Tour
References
External links Official website
Mac Miller on Twitter Mac Miller on Facebook
Mac Miller on MTV