The DOOM comparisons were loudly and obviously overblown, but the dusty, glitchy beats and free-associative rhymes were at least a distinctive style.
At first sheepishly, then enthusiastically, Mac began getting props for things like “songwriting” and “focus” and being “experimental.” In his defense, he showed marked improvement as a rapper, and promise as a producer. Starting with 2013’s Watching Movies With The Sound Turned Off and continuing through last year’s Faces mixtape, the consensus began to turn in Miller’s favor. Yet now, a half-decade later, he’s not only the (former) owner of every Los Angeles rapper’s favorite basement, but an artist taken seriously by the same critics and true-school fans who had previously written him off.
Miller might as well have shilled singer-songwriter mixtapes on the quad between freshman seminars, for all the resemblance he bore to even the most Clear Channeled-out black rappers of the time. But (in case you couldn’t tell from the last sentence) his was a niche that ran parallel to the rest of hip-hop.
He enjoyed a shocking amount of commercial success for a niche indie rapper the video for “Kool-Aid and Frozen Pizza” alone racked up millions of views on Youtube. Mac Miller coasted into rap as a critically-reviled outsider-a doofus stoner white kid who built a loyal fan base of mostly white, always stoned, teen suburbanites.
