![]() ![]() The track is a good start to an album that is supposed to be fun and low stakes as it serves as an appetizer to Blue Slide Park. He literally says “Ayo, this where the hook be/But I ain’t got no hook, you pussy.” He even advertises his album at the end of the track. The song is also goofy as he talks about what the chorus should be and that ends up being the chorus of the song. It’s an infectious song in which Mac Miller shines and sounds like he is ready for fame. Then the track explodes into a pop-rap banger with high-pitched vocal samples and a banging bass. The mixtape starts with the self-titled song “I Love Life, Thank You” which features a sample of John Lennon talking about dope in the music industry. While this mixtape doesn’t reach the heights of projects like Swimming and Faces, it’s still a tape that is worth looking into. The mixtape has elements of the pop stardom he was chasing at the time as well as his love 90’s rap and boom-bap. This may be a controversial take here, but I think it’s better than Blue Slide Park. When talking about his best mixtapes, the ones that first come to mind are probably Best Day Ever and Faces, not I Love Life, Thank You. I feel like this mixtape gets lost in the shuffle of Mac Miller’s dense discography. The mixtape served as a thank you gift to fans who helped him gain one million followers on Twitter. However, there was a mixtape released a month before Blue Slide Park called I Love Life, Thank You. ![]() I have followed him since the K.I.D.S era where I became obsessed with songs like “Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza” and “Senior Skip Day.” The year 2011 was a huge year for Mac Miller as he released his most popular mixtape Best Day Ever and he released his debut album Blue Slide Park which was the first independent album to go number one in over 15 years. He was all those things and I really miss him.Most of you know that Mac Miller was my first concert and his death absolutely crushed me. Mac Miller was Hip Hop, in a way few others have ever been. It was one of my best concert memories, and one that I had to reflect on when I caught news of his passing. His mixtape Macadelic was out, and there were people in the diverse crowd reciting every word (including myself). ![]() I finally got to see him live at a music festival in 2013. Because of that, I would always vouch for Mac and his talent even as his ascension in popularity had a negative correlation with my love of his newer projects. I had to hold on to my memories of those mixtapes, and just how much they became the soundtrack to my car rides, walks, study sessions, and workouts. He could show off his technical rhyming skills in the brief moments where he wasn’t capitulating to what rap was becoming. On the next album, it was “Red Dot Music” and on GO:OD AM it was “100 Grandkids”. On Blue Slide Park it was the title track. But he always chose a track or two on each project to remind the backpackers what he could do. He began singing more, the beats got more experimental, and the subject matter skewed further and further away from what I was willing to keep in my rotation. Some would call it creative growth, but I heard a creative shift. The music changed once his first album was released. He earned verses alongside Talib, Rapsody, Wale, Phonte, and Skyzoo to name a few. He tastefully paid homage to legends like Outkast, Tribe, and Jay Z. It was on his song “Boom Bap Rap” where I first heard the phrase “boom bap”. He had a respect for rap’s history that is lost on most contemporary Hip Hop. Unlike many other young MC’s, Mac did his homework. He had the flow, delivery, and timing of a veteran MC, but he was still young and kept enough youthful banter to satiate the taste of listeners in his age bracket. The mixtapes High Life, K.I.D.S., and Best Day Ever were out in addition to some very early mixtapes where he stuck primarily to industry instrumentals. By the time I began listening to him, it was 2011 and I had some catching up to do. That was easily one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made. A rapper with a backpack on and his pants sagging was just trying too hard. ![]() I saw a flyer for a show he was doing around my school in 2010, but I disregarded it quickly. Malcolm McCormick, or Mac Miller, passed away one year ago last week on September 7, 2018. ![]()
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