Like Wiz Khalifa, rapper Mac Miller is another talent from Allderdice
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Rapper Mac Miller
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For many high school graduates, childhood ends the moment a diploma hits the palms of their hands. To those students, the end of standardized tests and homework marks the beginning of life by their own standards, a journey toward aspirations they were never given permission to follow.
But for 18-year-old rapper Mac Miller, who has been moving full speed toward a career in hip-hop since freshman year at Allderdice High School, signing a deal with Rostrum Records to release the mixtape "K.I.D.S.," has given him a chance to embrace the adolescent experience in a way his schedule often didn't allow as he was living the moment.
"If you're not a kid anymore, [the mixtape] is about remembering when you were a kid and how you were able to live. This is great for me because I don't have to pay a bill. I live with my mom. For right now, I just get to be a kid," he said.
Most kids don't get the opportunity to perform on stage with national artists such as Young Jeezy and Wiz Khalifa, as Mac has in the past year, and Mac admits he never really grew up like most kids. Born Malcolm McCormick of Point Breeze, Mac is a self-taught musician who plays guitar, drums, bass and piano. By the time friends in high school were preoccupied with extracurricular activities and each other, Mac was focused on his music, spending summers making songs on his laptop or cloistered in an attic studio with friends.
"Once I hit 15, I got real serious about it and it changed my life completely," he said. "I used to be into sports, play all the sports, go to all the high school parties. But once I found out hip-hop is almost like a job, that's all I did."
After selling around 70 copies of his first album, a work he said was "of horrible quality" that he recorded on his laptop, he released his second solo work, "The Jukebox," in 2009.
First Published August 12, 2010 12:00 am
