for you, mac

Clarke Tolton for RollingStone.com

It feels like everyone is dying lately, it’s scaring the crap out of me. Every day you wake up and hear of another person in the limelight losing their life, whether it’s intentional or not. It’s so surreal to me. It’s that moment where you sit there in complete and utter shock… in disbelief as though you’re reading the headlines wrong.

But unfortunately that’s never the case.

Last Friday I was minding my own business, I was on the phone actually – like I said, I’ve found new things lately that are occupying me and keeping me off social media and the internet in general. I’m not as in the loop as I used to be.

I was talking using my headphones, meaning I could still see the notifications that were coming through to my phone. Suddenly I saw a text from my friend appear saying “Mac Miller is dead, what the fuck?”

Suddenly I zoned out of the conversation I was having and told that person I’d have to call them back. My throat became dry. Instantly I was on Twitter, news websites, Google – anything that could tell me this was just a hoax and that my friend had got it wrong.

Though I already knew that wasn’t the case.

It’s so strange and terrifying how people can be here one moment and gone the next, I could randomly die halfway through writing this post and you’d never know what I was about to say next. Isn’t that strange?

I don’t have an emotional connection to Mac as such, I’ve just always really liked his music. I have a lot of love for him as an artist – he was a good guy with a lot of respect for people, which was always reciprocated and of course, you can see that massively in the response this whole thing has received. I still can’t believe he’s gone. Where are all the good people going? It feels as though one day we’re just going to wake up and have no one left, which is terrifying to me. We need these artists.

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, too many people suffer in silence. Too many people are struggling and in turn end up self-medicating which then results in them being labelled as an addict. Have people ever thought to look at the reasons behind that? Why are they on self destruct? Why are they addicted? Because they want to be? Just for the fun of it? I don’t think so. People need to reach out and people on the internet need to be a lot fucking nicer – instead of calling someone a junkie or a crack addict, maybe think about why, and then think about the fact their trauma is being broadcast to everybody and they’re having to live through that with a giant spotlight shone in their face. Maybe think about closing your mouth for once and keeping your unwanted comments to yourself.

But this isn’t about that, I’m not going to start ranting, I just want this post to be somewhere I share some of my favourite Mac songs and we can all appreciate him together for the incredible artist he was. Too many people are leaving us lately.

☁️

Outside – K.I.D.S / 2010

Possibly my favourite Mac song of all time, I first heard this when I was in the car with a guy I used to hang out with, he’d always burn his own CDs instead of playing music off his phone and this was one of the songs on the discs that he’d play – they were some pretty crappy CDs and this was the only song out of all of them that I actually liked – I just used to keep skipping back to it over and over again because it’s the only one I actually enjoyed listening to. This has been one of my favourite Mac songs ever since.

Best Day Ever – Best Day Ever / 2011

This opening to this video is just…the cutest. I literally sit there smiling so hard every time I see it.

ROS – GO:OD AM / 2015

Another one of my absolute favourites because of the intro, I love it when he sings like this. I just close my eyes and you can imagine the whole scene because he really sets it with the song, the lyrics are also really beautiful. Every time I think of Mac I hear him saying “have you… have you, have you been in love before?”

Rush Hour – GO:OD AM / 2015

A tune.

Two Matches – GO:OD AM / 2015

GO:OD AM was a great album, I’m telling you.

Cinderella – The Devine Feminine / 2016

Another one of my favourites, I always catch myself singing this over and over in my head for some reason, I guess it’s just one of those songs. Super catchy. I was meeting this guy once and when he came to pick me up he was playing Cinderella as I got into the car because we both had a shared love for Mac Miller. He played the rest of Divine Feminine after that and later I told him I’d noticed he’d had Cinderella playing as I got into the car and he was like “Oh I was wondering if you noticed that, yeah I did that on purpose cause I thought you’d like it”. It was cool.

Dang – The Devine Feminine / 2016

Probably my favourite from Divine Feminine, my love for this song was sparked all over again when Mac duetted it with Ariana at the One Love Manchester Concert (I was so excited they’d done it because I seriously love this one). My favourite line change was “I just eat cookies other people need food”. This whole thing just makes me smile. I love Dang. Anderson .Paak is a great artist and I think the perfect person to feature on this track.

My Favourite Part – The Devine Feminine / 2016

Second favourite from Divine Feminine after Dang, anything with Ari and Mac together is instantly going to be a hit, I really love this one. The whole thing is so chill and calming and nice – even the music video. Nothing extravagant, just really chill. This performance they did is my favourite because they’re just having fun and vibing and you can see the happiness just pouring out of them, the part at the end where they’re having their little chat makes me smile soooo hard. I love them. Had to share this.

Congratulations – The Devine Feminine / 2016

I love this because of course, it’s the introduction to The Devine Feminine and Ari absolutely nailed it, the whole thing just sounds so dreamy. I love this one especially because it reminds me a lot of the ROS intro which I really loved. This whole thing is just dreamy, it’s like ROS part 2 (and I really love ROS).

☁️

I could put the whole of The Devine Feminine on here but I won’t, these are just a few of my favourite songs he’s brought out over the years.

Rest in peace Mac, you were one of the good ones.

I hope you’re smiling up there.

All my love,

Chloe .xx