Touring the country behind one of the largest online followings in recent Hip-Hop history, having Wiz Khalifa as your mentor, not to mention being signed to one of the fastest evolving grassroots labels in Hip-Hop, is an unconventional life for an 18 year old. This is the day to day for Mac Miller, who’s poised to make his mark on the Hip-Hop industry. The Pittsburgh native just dropped one of the most downloaded mixtapes of 2010, K.I.D.S.(Kickin Incredibly Dope Shit), on Dat Piff. He is currently making his rounds on “The Incredibly Dope Tour." I had the privilege of sitting down with him at his recent stop in Charlottesville to discuss his come-up as rookie to the game as well as his relationship with Wiz. Mac is no stranger to the Richmond area (a member of his crew was spotted in a Kulture shirt in his “Knock Knock” video), and this is his third stop to Virginia this year. Although a young face in the industry, Mac carries himself like a veteran, with a promise to be “kickin’ incredibly dope shit” consistently for years to come.
Joseph: So at the show tonight, you mentioned on stage about an interview you had yesterday where you were asked why all you talk about is weed and girls and such. When I listened to K.I.D.S., I understood it more as depicting the practical elements of a day, which requires a certain amount of storytelling and lyricism, but most importantly, an extensive vocabulary. Talk to me about some of your influences in developing such a mature voice at such a young age.
Mac: When you want to do music, there’s different ways to do it. You can pick what type of artist you want to be, and there’s nothing wrong with any type of art form when you’re dealing with music. I love club music, I love dance music, I love raw hip-hop. But personally, I wanted to a pick a lane where I speak on some everyday stuff. So if it comes that I’m smoking weed, then that day I probably smoked some weed. It’s just about my everyday life, really. My writing really depends on what I’m doing that day. When I was out in LA, I wrote “Nikes on My Feet,” and that’s one of the most swagged-out songs I have. And you can tell that there’s something in me during that song, that I feel real good because I was out in LA shopping, going crazy. That was my real “star studded experience” out in LA. I had my own room at the W, we were going to clubs every night, craziness. So that type of stuff inspires what I do. A song like “Outside” was probably a day when I was with my homies. We were just kicking it outside and I was like “Damn man, we be outside a lot, I’m gonna write a song." But I think that’s really the influence in whatever is around me.
Joseph: And it keeps an original energy to the song rather than trying to force something out, which in my opinion is really important. A lot of critics look at artists and expect everyone to be like Lupe Fiasco or Common and come out with this intellectual side. I was just talking to Big Sean about this. We were discussing how everyone is people, and everyone has a deep side that doesn’t really need to be expressed all the time in their music. Could you touch on that?
Mac: That’s one thing I was saying about music is that there different types of it. Like, you have a Common and a Lupe, and someone who can touch on certain subjects. When I want to hear someone like Immortal Technique, Jay Electronica, these people who can touch on these deep subjects, then I want to hear about that. When I’m in that mood, that’s who I want to put on. Now, Lil B is my homie, you know what I’m saying? He’s good peoples, and when you listen to Lil B, you want to just want to not care and feel good. You just want to have fun. And I think that’s the beauty of music, that there’s all these different artists and there actually is room for everybody. Everyone thinks, “Aw man, you can’t do this, this is my spot, you can’t be here." But in reality, man, everyone has their own story to tell, and people are interested in different aspects of different artists. People don’t have three favorite rappers, they have 70 favorite rappers, and there is no huge gap in that, it’s all one game.
Joseph: I didn’t even really realize that you were only 18 until not too long ago. How did you get to be in such a prominent position at such a young age? When did you start coming out with stuff and decide that it was going to be a job you were going to make money with?
Mac: Well, it started out not initially about money. Obviously I’m new to a lot of people. To mostly everyone that knows me now, I’m a new artist. I’ve been trying to get myself out there since I was 15. I’ve wanted to do this for awhile, and I believed in myself to do this for awhile. I put out mix tapes when I was 15 and 16 and 17. Now I’m 18 and I feel more mature. I’m not going to say more mature than any other 18 year old, but I feel like I had a good vision with this project and I do with the next project. I think it was just constant grinding, man. It was just not giving up, not slowing down, and considering myself to be official before everyone else did. If you consider yourself to be in the same league as anyone else, than you’re gonna go hard, you’re going to grind. If you tell yourself “Man, look at those people. They're so ill, I’m never going to be up like them,” then that’s where you’re playing, and that’s where you’ll fall into. But if you’re like, “Man, I’m going to grind so they know me, so I’m heard"--look what happened to me. I just tried and I didn’t give up. I just said, "One day soon, I’m going to be sitting there." And now my favorite rappers and producers of all time are hitting me up. I can reach out to [them] and [they] know who I am. You see, that’s the most important thing. I don’t care if they like me, hate me, want to work with me, never want to talk to me. But they know me, and that’s what matters to me.
Joseph: So it’s pretty much all about the way you deliver and carry yourself in the industry?
Mac: You just got to believe that it’s not as hard as everyone makes it seem. And it is that hard though, but you have to try to hypnotize yourself and tell yourself it’s not, because you never know man, it could happen.
Joseph: Has Wiz [Khalifa] served as a big mentor to you in this whole process?
Mac: Yeah man, that goes without saying because I’ve been around him for awhile, as long as I’ve been putting out mixtapes.
Joseph: Did you all know each other back in Pittsburgh?
Mac: Not when I was in high school, because I started high school when he graduated. What happened was we just ran into each other at the studio. It was on some friends' stuff, you know. A tip to other rappers too is, when you meet a rapper that you want to work with or respect, just let it happen. Like, I didn’t come up to Wiz when I first met him and was like, “Yo Man! I Rap!” because he would’ve been like “ah." We just chilled and developed a friendship, and when it came time for me to put out my mixtape, he hopped on that. Now he’s just a homie, with rap or nothing. In Pittsburgh, we go to the same studio, so we’re going to run into each other, and he saw me grinding so he started giving me respect. It was cool.
Joseph: It kind of goes along with what we we’re discussing earlier in how you approach things in the industry; how you can’t approach things with the mentality that you want things out of certain people, because it defeats that mutual relationship.
Mac: Exactly. The thing is, you don’t need anything. Anyone who thinks they need something from someone is wrong. If you’re going to do this, you can do it with you and your homies. You can if you want, and there definitely are people that have. Like me right now, I travel with my homies. I don’t have a 35 year old tour manager that use to tour with the Rolling Stones. When people see you going after it, and they see you chase a dream, they’re going to give you the respect that you deserve. They’re going to see you’re not worried about doing different things, you're just focused on your own dreams. And they’ll respect that.
Joseph: A note I wanted to bring up, being from the Richmond area: I noticed the Kulture shirt in your “Knock Knock” video. Could you give me any info on how you got hooked up with that?
Mac: Tree J [the one wearing the Kulture shirt], who’s my right hand man, said when we we’re doing this show in Virginia, "There are these dudes in Virginia who are real cool, they're called Kulture. They sell water pipes, and rolling papers and all that stuff, we should meet up with them." And I was like, "No doubt." That’s the best part, when we come to Virginia we know we’re cool, because Kulture's here to hook us up with what we need. Like tonight, we’re about to go to the club and party. But that’s one of the best things; when you travel you need to really interact with the people in that area. Find where their clothing store is that’s the poppin’ clothing store and meet those people, so you know when you go, you're cool there.
Joseph: Is there any future project or anything you want to discuss?
Mac: Yeah. I’m working on Best Day Ever right now; it should come out early 2011, probably January. And more videos, more, more more. Basically, I’m going to keep working like I haven’t done shit yet.