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An image of Mac Miller, who died unexpectedly in September, screened at the back of the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, California, before a benefit concert in his honor.
Scott Dudelson / Getty Images
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Scott Dudelson / Getty Images
An image of Mac Miller, who died unexpectedly in September, screened at the back of the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, California, before a benefit concert in his honor.
Scott Dudelson / Getty Images
Mac Miller left Pittsburgh with a career as a rapper, a job he studied and devoted all his creative energy to until his sudden death in September, at the age of 26. His death severely affected the community of musicians he had nurtured he traveled the world in his teens and settled in Los Angeles in his twenties. Miller, who released his fifth album, To swim, in August, it was planned to start a national tour this week. Instead, the band he had rehearsed with, a group that other musicians had claimed to be jealous of, supported by many of the musicians with whom Mac had collaborated and had been friends at the time. of a tribute concert. The show benefited the foundation that his family created after his death, which means encouraging underserved children from his hometown to make art.
I went to this concert on Halloween, at the Greek in Hollywood, because I wanted to write about Mac Miller's legacy, which, I'm sure, will not, at the end, the music that he did, but rather the potential realization and art of the musicians he knew, loved and supported.
I do not say that to diminish what he did and what people felt about his work. What will last the longest after Mac is the less visible things, much more difficult to measure: you can not quantify the moral support or predict the effect that will enhance the confidence of someone, what An artist will do with an open door, this an audience will emerge from a creative mind.
To take an example, five years ago – that is, before the summer Macklemore "stole" (his words) Kendrick Lamar from all these Grammys, the summer of the verse "Control " Magna Carta Holy Grail, Nothing was the same and Run The Jewels – Mac Miller & # 39; s Watching movies with the sound off went up against Kanye West Yeezus and J. Cole & # 39; s Born sinner for sales of the first week. He lost that battle, but he still sold more than 100,000 copies during this seven-day period, making it the 10th week of opening the highest of all hip-hop albums in the world. this year.
The year 2013 was a strange transition period, with phenomenal albums appearing every month and mediocre songs dominating all waveforms. The majors played their part while the Soundcloud musicians were rewriting the playbook without moderation.
It was felt that the gap between well-received music and popular music was becoming impassable. Some people like it: it makes them feel good, as a consumer, to be in the minority. But staying small is not the big dream of any creator; the big dream is to become a colossus while staying who you are. It does not happen without finesse.
That summer, in this climate, Mac – playing in the big leagues – had brought Vince Staples and Chance the Rapper on the road. At the time, Vince had released three mixtapes, the most recent produced by Mac. Chance had released two. Each of their 2013 bands had worked well, especially that of Chance Acid Rapbut they had not toured and they still did not have the funds from this company behind them.
Mac put them in front of a vocal audience, children with exponential reach and money to spend, before they built national fan bases. People who paid a lot of attention to hip-hop knew they would do it. It was perfectly clear that Vince and Chance had an insane talent (in different ways, hip-hop being a very big tent) and concentrated. They had already found their voice and were linked to strong teams.
So, it was not like Mac was guiding their artistic childhood or anything like it. But he surrounded himself with such clever, complicated and singular characters that it was not guaranteed that they would one day win cross-selling, evangelizing the merch-sporters who could not name three other contemporary rappers, or followers of Twitter, eager to be told and / or clown.
Some people would not have been able to handle the artistic competition created by this bill. Some people would not have thought it was fun. Some people have tried to dispel some of this pressure to sell tickets. Some people would have liked more hooks or more fashion. Some people would have thought it would be smarter if the range was whiter.
But Mac and his team booked the Space Migration Tour as they did, which also included dates with Earl Sweatshirt and Action Bronson. And all four of these acts appeared Wednesday night at L.A.
It was a little cold, but the production had the same feeling: after an act left the scene, the opening notes of the song on the bridge announced the arrival of the next artist, the crowd taking over and a fitting demonstration of what he or she went out. In the first half of the series, the actors interpreted the song they had composed with Mac, then one or two of theirs, then said a few words about it and moved away.
The crowd was all moved by Mac's personal videos as a child, to be funny or to play the piano.
There were dissonant moments, like when Domo Genesis almost apologized between his song with Mac and his solo song. He said that he wanted this not to happen in these circumstances. The concert concert put Domo before a large audience that he could not command alone; even in death, the Mac public was made available to someone else and the transaction – the fandom imbalance enjoyed by someone like Mac as opposed to someone else. one like Domo – was exposed by the uneasiness of Domo. At least it was for me. People around me, sitting in rather expensive seats, are certainly not nosebleeds, smack dab in the middle, just floated along.
Earl went out and did "Guild" and "New Faces" and then he said that his friend would be crazy if he left us sad and that the DJ was pushing the fader on "Hey Ma", that they had covered together. Chance did his trick and was the only artist to mention, let alone bless, the foundation supported by the benefit.
Vince spoke of the man he called his best friend and was emotional enough to affect a nasal voice, keeping himself away from the distance. However, at the end of the night, when Mac's family revealed almost all the acts that had taken place, Vince was holding Mac's mother. She leaned on him. John Mayer came to shake his hand and Vince gave it a second, but he was right there. He put it under his arm. This is the kind of physical support you pray you never need.
Action Bronson goes on stage, then launches Alchemist, producer of Mac and Action's "Red Dot Music", and asks him to get out of the hallway. In another life, they were celebrating together this song which, three years ago, was used to kill Easy Mac, the character occupied by Miller during his breakup, that of 2011 Blue Slide Park marking him yet another white baby face with more appeal outside hip-hop than in it. "Red Dot Music" is more like "true hip-hop", and it's best suited for an adult, or at least a male, male: it's ironic, stoic, and hypnotically fatalistic . He does his job very well, Mac and Action playing the lead role in a cop cop movie. The problem is that with Mac now dying of drugs, engaging in a pun with mischief seemed silly.
The action was less monitored than Vince in his expression, and while he was shouting: "It must be drugs …" again and again to finish the song, he started shaking his head. It seemed to me that he had suddenly remembered why he was up there, as he had suddenly felt uncomfortable singing what he was saying. was singing, not knowing if he was doing the right thing. He tried to conceal it by saying that he was screwed up, that it was a night filled with emotions.
The thing is, no. Not in the crowd.
The back half of the series was composed of artists who do not have a song with Mac. They were and are too big for him. They knew him in real life, they said he was their friend, but this gap between traditional pop and more stimulating music, even if it seems easier to fill, is still present.
The people around me seemed too happy to get rid of the conflicts brought to light by the programming; When a number offered a song that allowed us to pretend that the repercussions were not a thing, the crowd went off casually by ripping the club too fast. It was disorienting, and the delirium of change made me think that the moments of reflection were only a thin layer covering a deep well. A well of what I can not say, but the crowd felt empowered. Travis Scott was not afraid to talk about love, which really underpinned all of this business, no matter what was traded over it. But "Sicko Mode" to close a tribute?
Juicy J materializing to hit "Bandz A Make Her Dance" blew up the roof, though after he had left the people around me, he wondered: "What is it? c & # 39; was "? Rae Sremmurd had the cry of the night when the DJ launched "No Type" from nowhere. Ty Dolla Sign told us that Mac had told him that "Jaded" was one of his favorite songs, so it was his excuse to embark on his biggest hit. He said it was rather questionable, but when he plunged off the stage and ran across the pit, deep into the seats, far behind where he would normally go, the energy went on. is right.
Right after Mac's death, there was a wave of love and gratitude on social media. Personalities felt the need to publish public messages about their relationship with him and the abrupt nature of his passing. My friends, who do not pay as much attention to music as me, asked me if it was real, if these celebrities and musicians felt that way before or if it was a movement situation . I told them that I saw love for him behind the scenes for years, artists working at his house all the time, collaborations all over the place, and sometimes when his fall from the wagon affected the agendas of others people, no dirt.
So I think it was real. I think that nowadays, if a public person reacts strongly enough to a private loss to spontaneously make a statement about it, it will do it through a channel that she controls. And it will be the full extent of their expression on the subject in front of strangers out of the house.
None of the acts wanted to talk to a night reporter. They had already typed their grief; why would they come back again, trying to find concise but evocative words approved by the FCC, the tension in the burned throat, and any confusion or guilt or horror and any shame or insecurity to see those feelings Revealed and forever preserved your memory or on Godforsaken's Internet?
But the weeks that elapsed between these elegiac publications and last Wednesday allowed Mac's friends to mourn privately for a while. Accepting this concert, playing in a moment that required a home-based type of drive, especially because Mac's mother was right next door, meant that they were brought back into a public role and that it was outlawed .
From my seat, there seemed to be fleeting moments where Mac's friends were not sure of their responsibilities. Especially when ScHoolboy Q apologized for not having the words for now, I wondered if he was afraid of something he could have done to prevent the death of his friend. After my podcast, Microphone check, republished from a 2015 interview with Mac shortly after his death, we received comments from listeners who worried me; I was wondering what words each of us should use when we talk to people who might be in a perilous state. What can you give to a total stranger, let alone to tens of thousands of strangers, having their own unknown reaction to the tragedy? What if you say the wrong thing?
Almost everyone on stage gave Mac the opportunities he had enjoyed and the support he had turned into success. After that, some people said, let's go get our boy. Some people said take care of your friends. Some people spoke to him directly. Chance looked up and said, "Hey Mac. Is not it cool?"
Some parts were cool. Dancing through all of this, especially shoulder to shoulder with people you love, is challenging and constructive. Forgetting a second is a relief.
There were so many types of music played that night. So many different ways to perform demonstrated. It was like a mini-festival in this trippy way, all-meeting-on-a-plan-equal-equal, these fake barriers between indie and major and niche and mainstream and melodic and heady and euphoric and inner and eternal and desperately sad carried away.
I think Mac's life was lived by a community of musicians who responded to a request to play a few songs one night for a good cause with "For Mac and his Family?" Of course, this is not a problem." These musicians are very different from each other, and this goes up to the way everyone responds to the call of a captive audience to be told what's wrong in this situation. The crowd was not sure what to do with this distant but still personal sadness and the musicians were not interested in interpreting their trauma. The fact that none of this is solved, that the night has never become poignant, does not mean that something has gone wrong.
Who knows? It is possible that the Mac circle itself simply needs to come together in this way. And it is possible that some aspects of their efforts on his behalf were subtly meaningful or instructive for, for example, the six 20-year-olds in my section who led the series from North Dakota. Among the different micro-genres and approaches presented that night, there were a handful of ways to mourn. What seemed destabilizing to them was to go through them: serious, loving, optimistic, in fact. Relationships that took the form of close friendships, business partnerships or mutual respect. We listened to songs about absorbing your problems and falling in love and gravity.
And then we just left. I did not witness any drama. Lyft's lot was patient. The conversations around me as we drifted down the road aimed to want more: more of Travis; I still can not believe he's dead. is it too much to ask Ariana for an appearance? There is no doubt that there is unpublished music for Mac Miller, but once it has been packaged, delivered and feasted, there will be more.
Mac's friends, peers and competitors will continue to grow. And more people will hear what they are doing because of the choices made by Mac. That's enough. Anyone can rest knowing that he has done it.
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