Nineteen year old, Pittsburgh based rapper, Mac Miller is taking the music industry by storm with his new album, Blue Slide Park.
The past three years have been quite the wild ride for Miller. In 2008, he launched his first mix tape, But My Mackin Ain’t Easy and back to back tapes in 2009, The Jukebox: Prelude to Class Clown and The High Life. After signing to Rostrum Records in early 2010, the rest of the year proved to be one success after another. Between releasing the mix tapes, Best Day Ever and K.I.D.S, releasing his first single (Knock, Knock), and embarking on his first ever sold out “Incredibly Dope Shit” Tour – 2010 set the stage for 2011.
After releasing his first EP, On and On and Beyond in March of 2011, Mac started to finish work on his debut album, Blue Slide Park. After Blue Slide Park’s release in November 2011, he gave the music industry a shock by becoming the first indie album to reach #1 on the Billboard 200 list, with first week sales of the album at 144,000.
Mac is the perfect example of the amazing power of what an internet fan base can do for an individuals career. Using his Twitter and YouTube accounts to reach out to fans, even personally talking to them, has more than helped his album sales and ticket sales for tours. In an interview with HipHopDX.com, Mac said “The amount of fans I have been able to reach by just being on the internet has blown me away. I get hit up by people who speak different languages and they tell me how much they love my music. It is a blessing that the Internet gives artists the ability to touch fan bases and create new varieties of fan bases by just having an entire Internet community.”
Miller seems to have a deep connection with high school and college aged kids, simply because he is so young and raps about things people in our age group on a daily basis. As much as his biggest fan base is with teens/early twenties, he seems to draw an even larger base with older fans simply due to his down-to-earth appeal and easy listening approach to music.
Mac Miller Fun Facts:
- His real name is Malcolm McCormick
- Mac is featured on Maroon 5’s remix of “Moves Like Jagger”
- He was apart of MTVs Jams Fab Five Artists
- Donald Trump called him the “new Eminem”
- Mac has over 1.4 million followers on Twitter
