Mac Miller might seem like just another Internet rapper, until you find out just how popular he actually is. After dropping his mixtape K.I.D.S. last summer, the 19-year-old Pittsburgh native’s career has been on the upswing. He’s quietly amassed over 550,000 followers on Twitter. A number of his videos on YouTube have over 10 million views, including “Nikes On My Feet,” “Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza,” and “Donald Trump,” and his recent EP, On and On and Beyond, has sold over 40,000 copies, independently through Rostrum Records.
To top it all off, he just announced the title of his upcoming album Blue Slide Park, due sometime in the fall. And although the Most Dope General seems to be on the bubble (just like his smoking buddy and labelmate Wiz Khalifa was last year), Mac isn’t ready to hop onto a major label just yet. We got on the horn with the artist formerly known as Easy Mac to talk about his new album, his relationship with producers E. Dan and Big Jerm, and rumors of secretly signing to a major label.
You just announced the title for your upcoming album, Blue Slide Park. Where does that title come from?
Blue Slide Park is a playground/park that’s around the city of Pittsburgh. It’s a spot that we hung out at as little kids. But then we came back when we got older and drank and smoked there. It was the hangout spot. So it’s just a spot for a lot of people’s first memories.
I used to play Little League around there. I remember parties there, running from the cops, just a lot of stuff that I’ve done. Everything from when I was like 6 years old to memories of last night. Actually, last night we released the title so we went down there to go chill and kick it. But right when we rolled in, ten minutes later, cops pulled up. [Laughs.]
[It doesn’t have a date but] it will be out soon. I don’t have a required thing that I have to have a date and meet it. It’s coming out through Rostrum in the fall, and I want to do it when it feels right to me.
What is the goal for this record?
I don’t know, man. It’s just a crazy thing just to have an album. I had an album when I was 15, but it was all old DJ Premier, Pete Rock, and Alchemist instrumentals that I burned onto a CD, put a little cover on, and sold.
It’s just kind of crazy to get from there to a real album. Obviously I want to see it do as well as possible. But to go to a CD store and see my album, to hold it in my hand as an album, it just means a lot more than the stuff I’ve done in the past.
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