Mac Miller, born Malcolm James McCormick was born on January 19th, 1992, to photographer Karen Meyers and architect Mark McCormick in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Coined, “the coolest Jew rapper,” by himself, Miller began his musical career at the age of 6 when he began piano lessons.
“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 told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Miller furthered his musical knowledge by picking up the bass, drums and guitar on his own. In 2007, Miller released his mixtape But My Mackin’ Ain’t Easy, his first foot in the musical world as a rapper. Two more mixtapes later, Miller was signed to Rostrum Records after meeting the label’s president while Miller was in the studio recording with fellow Pittsburgh rapper, Wiz Khalifa.
Miller’s rather lengthy discography includes five studio albums, two extended plays, one live album, twelve mixtapes, twenty-eight singles (including six as a featured artist), one promotional single and forty-one music videos.
In 2012, Miller admitted to being addicted to promethazine and codeine, a combination, informally, known as “lean.” He was able to beat this addiction in November 2012, prior to the filming of his reality television show, Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family.
Miller was in a long term relationship with a woman he met in middle school which lasted four years until April of 2013. Officially, Miller was single until August 2016 when he began to date singer/songwriter/actress Ariana Grande. That relationship lasted until May of 2018.
One month following the debut of Miller’s fifth studio album, Swimming, he was pronounced dead at the scene of his Studio City home by Los Angeles police around noon on Friday, September 7th, 2018, as a result of an apparent drug overdose. He was 26 years old.
Although Miller’s life was lost at such a young age, his name will continue to be in people’s mouths and his memory will live on. Miller will be missed dearly by friends, family and fellow entertainers, especially since he was an extremely respected individual in the rap community.
