Mac Miller
photo: nicolas völcker · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Malcolm McCormick came up in Pittsburgh as a teenage mixtape rapper, breaking through with the freewheeling K.I.D.S. and Best Day Ever tapes before his 2011 debut Blue Slide Park topped the charts on independent-label muscle. Over the decade he shed the frat-rap tag and grew into a restless, jazz-inflected artist, trading party bars for candid reckonings with addiction and self-doubt across Faces, The Divine Feminine, and 2018's Swimming. He died of an accidental overdose in September 2018 at 26, weeks after Swimming; the companion record Circles arrived posthumously in 2020.
Miller repeatedly cited Big L as the rapper who first inspired him to pick up a pen, and his estate has confirmed Big L was among his all-time favorites; you hear it in the dense, punchline-stacked lyricism of his early Pittsburgh mixtapes, which chase the same battle-rap wordplay over soulful loops.
listen forThrow on Big L's 'Put It On' and then Mac's 'Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza' — hear how both cram the bar with rapid-fire internal rhymes and setup-and-payoff punchlines, a young rapper flexing pure technical wordplay over a warm sample.
Miller counted A Tribe Called Quest among his core influences, and their warm, jazz-sampling boom-bap runs through the laid-back, sun-lit production of his early mixtapes — the same appetite for mellow loops, soft bass, and unhurried, conversational flows.
listen forPlay Tribe's 'Electric Relaxation' and then Mac's title track 'Best Day Ever' — notice the shared feel of a soft, jazzy loop and a relaxed pocket, the rapper riding the beat like an easy hangout rather than a sprint.
Miller listed Lauryn Hill among his influences, and her blend of rapping and open-hearted soul singing points toward the confessional, melody-forward turn of his later work, where he sang as often as he rapped and built songs around vulnerability rather than punchlines.
listen forSet Hill's aching 'Ex-Factor' beside Mac's '2009' — hear how both drift between sung and spoken delivery over soft keys, turning private hurt and self-reckoning into a warm, soulful ballad.