Mac Miller: Hip Hop’s Newest Golden Child

Mac Miller has been hustling for this moment: the release of his debut effort, “Blue Slide Park” (Nov. 8). In three years the 19 yr. old has sold out shows, rounded up 176 million and plus YouTube views and has even got the nod by Donald Trump, all without a record deal.

Mac Miller: The Billboard Cover Story | Outtakes: Mac Miller Cover Shoot

Days after his first “Blue Slide Park” single “Frick Park Market” dropped (Aug. 18), the independent artist grabbed the highest-rentry mark on the Social 50 Chart, coming in at No. 38. With the debut, Miller’s Facebook fans leaped from 44,000 to 100,000 new fans added, week-to-week.

If that’s not enough, the fans’ excitement for Miller’s 16-songs set can be seen by the towering number of pre-orders. As mentioned in Mac Miller’s Billboard cover story, Miller racked 25,000 pre-orders when he unveiled the album title and has since climbed to around 41,000.

21 Under 21: Mac Miller (2011)

It’s only up from here for Mac. On the set of his Billboard cover shoot, Mac Miller sat down with Billboard.com to walk us through every track on “Blue Slide Park.” Watch the video track-by-track above or read what Miller had to say below. Miller tells us which song he used to say “fuck you,” being drunk when first recording “Frick Park Market,” and shares details of his and his team’s extra-curricular activities.

1. “English Lane”

“English Lane” is actually the street that Blue Slide Park is on. When you go up there’s this little alley way called English Lane. I was walking by and was like ‘I got to name a song English Lane.’ It’s kind of like the intro, [as if] you’re walking up into Blue Slide Park.”

2. “Blue Slide Park”

“It’s funny because when I put out ‘Blue Slide Park’ everyone thought it was going to be a song describing Blue Slide Park. But in reality it’s the feel. It’s produced by Big Jermany Dan, I.D. Labs. It’s that boom bap.”

3. “Party On Fifth Ave”

“I got a story about this record here. It’s produced by I.D. Labs but I had to force them to make this beat. It samples something you know [and] that people know. I was like ‘Yo, we got to flip this and do a new version of this. Man, it’d be so dope.’ Everyone was like, ‘That’s one of your corny ideas, man. That’s corny.’ I was like ‘E [E Dans of I.D. Labs], make this beat, please, man. Trust me, just make it. It will be the jam.’ So he made it and its actually the next video. For the video, I told E, ‘we should all be old people.’ We decided to do it more tongue in cheek so we went and hit the costume store and got some gray wigs. We all had a blast. The song’s called ‘Party On Fifth Ave’ but rarely do you see a party in the video. It’s more [of] the feeling you get. It’s an old school sample so I felt like, that’s old people, it works.”

4. “PA Nights”

“‘PA Nights’ is one of the deeper tracks on the album. It’s really reflecting. I travel everywhere and I’ve seen everywhere in the world, places I never thought I’d be able to go. When you’re in this, you don’t think about how crazy it actually is because it’s worth. But when you go home, you just sit there and go ‘holy shit.’”

5. “Frick Park Market”

“‘Frick Park Market’ was one of the last records we did for the album. I came in when E was making that beat and right off the jump I was like ‘This is the jam.’ I remember I recorded [the] first pass when I was super drunk, sorry. We took it home and listened to it and I was like ‘This song is way too hard for me to sound this drunk’ so I came back and re-did it. I love that song because it embodies the concept of the album which is just fun and full of energy. But then out of nowhere, it just smacks you in the head with some trippy and takes you somewhere you wouldn’t think the song would take you.”

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by Erika Ramirez, N.Y.   |   November 09, 2011 1:00 EST