In honor of prelims this week, I feel like it is a good time for a post about a great song. I know a lot of people aren't big supporters of Mac Miller, but I have a personal favorite by him - Good Evening, which is off last year's mix tape, K.I.D.S. He starts this off with an excellent beat, which is actually sampled off Drake's A Night Off. The catchy background (a sped up version of Drake's bridge) is then thrown behind a great series of lyrics. The entire song is about how he is going to make it in the rap world, not by putting others down, but because he has "invested all [he's] got into these fucking raps." I think this is something different than the dis's and Braggadocio rhymes we are used to hearing. To me, it is a little more respectable. He says, "I don't even need to bring a single gun to war cuz I'm on that shit that they aint even done before," and "you can find me in the lab working over time," implying that he doesn't need to fight off others to be the best, but instead he is going to work hard at it to get to where he wants to be. He creates multiple witty references including Willie Parker, an NFL running back, to represent the idea that the money he has put into his career will ultimately come back to him (which it has, considering this song was written almost two years ago). He references Lewis and Clark when speaking of his travels, the fountain of youth when discussing how young he is for the rap game, the children's book and now movie, "Where the Wild Things Are," when discussing his weed trips. The song is filled with many other great lyrics, I posted the link below if anyone wants to check it out. It is one of my favorites. It is something a little bit different.
Mac Miller- Good Evening
Ok, first off, I love Mac Miller (anyone who thinks otherwise can come talk to me)- I first got into his music a few years ago at a concert back home. He was up and coming back then, and I've seen a lot of growth from him through the tracks he's produced over the years. The second reason I'm glad you posted this (which really isn't that important) is that it's ironic that I happen to be in New York this weekend and I thought of the opening line of this song which is: "When I party in New York I take the subway, I go out on friday and come on home Monday".
ReplyDeleteI think that the storytelling type rap style that we talked about in class is reflective in the line: "just an everyday story that I'm here to tell". Mac goes through a day in his life by rapping about his activities (i.e. smoking weed and getting girls).
I think that you have a point Alexa, that Mac can be more classy with his lyrics than most other artists; he uses literary allusions to popculture, simile ("mind like a roller coaster"), and countless examples of word play which keeps his music engaging for listeners. However, I think that Mac definitely takes braggadocio liberties in lines and phrases like: "man every girl got my name imprinted in her brain" and "boy I'm a beast"; empty lines like these make his music a little superficial, but nonetheless, they don't keep me from loving the tracks he produces.
While listening to this song I couldn't help but think about Childish Gambino. I'm not saying that the style is similar, but the idea of being "different" is present in both this song and Childish. Mac Miller does at times have lines that express the thought that he's better than others, but I feel that he's mainly trying to saying he is unique. I mean, not many rappers would reference Mary Poppins in a song with the lines "My fans notice these other rappers is bogus,
ReplyDeleteI'm Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. "