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Album Impact - Swimming by Mac Miller

Not too many celebrity deaths hit me the way that Mac Miller’s did. I find myself often just thinking “that’s life” or some other dismissive idea about death when people I don’t know pass. This one hit home because I remember when KIDS came out in 2010. I remember the start of my own music group and the three of us sitting around a computer watching “Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza” grow in views because this kid was rapping in a way I had never paid attention to before. Mac was an artist that never let himself be limited by a genre or a singular sound.

The first time I listened to his new album was 10 minutes after hearing of his passing. I had listened devotedly for years, but at some point my cravings moved to a different sound. It didn’t take long for me to realize that Swimming was from a different type of artist than I remembered. The first song “Come Back to Earth” had me in tears halfway through. It’s the perfect intro to an album that is gonna take you down an honest path. By the time you get to the midway point in “Small Worlds,” there’s a realization that this is one of the voices of your generation. Had I heard this album two months ago, I would of told you that Mac Miller had a classic album coming. This would have been the lead punch into a hay-maker of a classic, in my opinion. The only gripe I have with this album that doesn’t catapult it into my top 10 is that at the end of “So It Goes” I find myself wanting more. I want to go deeper with Mac into his problems and hear the details of his mind. He hit me hard with this album and left me waiting for the next chapter.

Through the years, if you’re deep enough into the culture’s music industry, you knew that Mac Miller was producing for other Hip-Hop artists. You heard the jazzy-funk-”golden era” influence in his production style somewhere, and you believed he was gonna be around for a while. Mac Miller was one of those artists who died and it affected damn near all of your friends, and with that being said, I implore you to go listen to this album and remember why.

Swimming, an album by Mac Miller on Spotify

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