Mar 31, 2021 - 4:54 pm
No matter where life took Mac Miller, you could always find him with a smile on his face.
And in March of 2011, just seven months after the release of his breakthrough mixtape,
K.I.D.S, life took Miller just about everywhere. The then 19-year-old Pittsburgh emcee was seeing success at a rapid pace. It was a year of non-stop touring and non-stop studio sessions in Chicago, North Carolina and at ID Labs studios in Pittsburgh, his home base. He found himself working alongside dream producers like seven-time GRAMMY nominee Just Blaze, and Khrysis, one of his personal favorites whose beats he spit freestyles over just a couple of years before gaining major attention. He also earned features from rappers he idolized like North Carolina legend Phonte and his musical big brother Wiz Khalifa. And, soon enough, he saw a co-sign from a future U.S. president, someone he would eventually publicly denounce: Donald Trump.