Mac Miller, a legendary and innovative rapper-meets-producer, died at the age of 26 on Sept. 7.
Though Miller deserves to be remembered as the happy-go-lucky creative person he became, his artistic niche relied heavily on his painful addiction to drugs and alcohol. 2012âs âMacadelicâ provides a decently realistic version of a desperate struggle to find peace within himself. His 2014 mixtape âFacesâ is a trippy journey filled with borderline disturbing details of his struggle with mental illness and drug addiction.
âPerfect Circle / God Speedâ on 2015âs âGO:OD AMâ hits particularly hard, thanks to lyrics like âthem pills that Iâm poppinâ, I need to man up/admit that itâs a problem, I need to wake upâ and âthey donât want me to OD and have to talk to my mother/telling her they could have done more to help me.â
Miller was always deeply honest about his drug problems, yet his most recent album, âSwimming,â was a hopeful glimpse into the rapperâs future. Perhaps the most painful aspect of his tragic passing is that the world was just getting to meet this new version of Miller – a healthy, optimistic individual that was ready to take on the next portion of his life.
Merely hours before his overdose, he was tweeting about going on tour and encouraging fans to buy tickets. Fans, musicians and loved ones have spent the last few days pondering how a recently reinvented soul like Miller could possibly pass away so suddenly. Despite addiction being a profoundly fickle illness, itâs the same reason for his demise.
Even with Millerâs alleged sober and vivacious new state of mind, no one actually knows what was happening behind closed doors. In â2009,â a reflective tune on 2018âs /Swimming,â Miller muses about his struggles: âand sometimes, sometimes I wish I took a simpler route/instead of having demons thatâs as big as my house.â
Image courtesy of Inside Edition.
The sorrow surrounding Millerâs death is nearly indescribable. The fact that yet another intensely talented mind has been taken away due to drugs is, in short, hurtful. It simultaneously pains the ones closest to him and the fans that never even got a chance to see him live.
Itâs difficult not to feel as though Millerâs death is somehow personal. Even as supporters and avid fans of his art, losing Miller feels like the downfall of an old friend. Itâs as though Miller was someone we all collectively grew up with. We watched him succeed. We watched him tumble. And just yesterday, we were so pleased with his growth and triumphs. Itâs more painful than the average celebrity passing.
Miller was taken away from the world in a rather tragic way. For someone obsessed with going down as a legend, at the very least, we can do him that favor.
Maybe, however, having someone so monumental falling victim to overdosing will finally be the wakeup call the nation desperately needs. Drug addiction is not a simple problem that can be fixed after an intervention and a brief stint in rehab. Such dependency is heavily rooted in mental illness, not to mention being an actual disease itself.
Maybe Millerâs passing will one day be used as a learning lesson. Addiction is not something to be taken lightly, and itâs becoming increasingly difficult to cope with such losses, especially those that we looked up to the most. Even so, the deeply rooted anguish behind every R.I.P. tweet and Instagram post continues to exist. At the end of the day, no matter what the circumstances were, losing Miller hurts.