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Part of a wave of young, open minded, independent hip hop stars who are less obsessed with bling and gangsta cliches, Mac Miller is a white, Jewish kid from Pittsburgh producing college party jumpers, stoner anthems and funny one-liner put downs. Raised in the suburbs, Mac (real name Malcolm James McCormick) started rapping and singing at 15 with the crew The Ill Spoken (which also included MC Beedie), but it was through the mentoring and support of Wiz Khalifa that his skills grew and mix-tapes K.I.D.S. (2010) and Best Day Ever (2011) started to gain widespread attention. Compared to the likes of The Beastie Boys, Outkast and A Tribe Called Quest, Miller's bubblegum pop, dreamy "cloud rap" hallucinations and cartoonish beats shot album Blue Slide Park (2011) to the top of the US charts, making it the first independent release to debut at Number 1 since 1995. He went on to tour with Lil Wayne, release the jazz EP You (2012) under the name Larry Lovestein and the Velvet Revival and launch his own MTV reality show, before recruiting Action Bronson, Earl Sweatshirt and Pharrell Williams and striking a more serious, forthright tone on psychedelic, synth driven second album Watching Movies With The Sound Off (2013).
Artist biography compiled by BDS/West 10. All rights reserved
