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Mac Miller has just landed himself in a bit of trouble. TMZ has relayed information from law enforcement that around 1 a.m. on Thursday, May 17, Mac Miller was driving in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California when his 2016 Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon hit a power pole, knocking it down to the ground.
Apparently, an eye witness saw the crash happen. The witness called law enforcement after watching Mac Miller and his two passengers flee the scene on foot, abandoning the vehicle. The witness told police officers which way the Mac and the passengers had gone, but the police were able to obtain Mac Miller’s address after running his license plates.
Once police arrived at his home, Mac confessed to driving drunk, crashing his vehicle into the power pole, and fleeing the scene. Mac was in too deep to be able to charm himself out of an arrest, but one law enforcement officer told TMZ that Mac was quite amiable during their interaction. “He was the most polite and nice intoxicated person we’ve ever seen,” he said. Mac was cuffed and carried off to jail, where his bail was set at $15,000. On Thursday, May 17, Mac Miller was seen exiting the jail with two acquaintances accompanying him to his ride. A videographer from TMZ asked him several questions, all of which he ignored as he hid his face in a sweatshirt he draped over his face. See the video below.
For someone with an estimated net worth of $14 million, it seems strange that Mac would be willing to put his and two other lives on the line when he could call an Uber, taxi, or even have a private limo whip his crew around. What would cause the rap superstar to act so erratically? It might have something to do with the fact that he recently broke up with singer Ariana Grande earlier this month.
Although there’s no mention of their break-up on any of Mac’s social media accounts, Ariana Grande recently tweeted “pls take care of yourself” shortly after his release from jail. If you really want to read into it, Ariana may have cleverly subtweeted Mac even earlier, back on May 14 when she expressed love for her fans… But her tweets could have held a double meaning, seeing as their break-up was just days before the tweets. “hey i love y’all sm” was the first tweet, followed by “thanks for being the sickest ever i love u”, with the last tweet sent out two days later, which read “forever”.
pls take care of yourself
— Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) May 17, 2018
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Mac Miller and Ariana Grande have been in a public relationship since September 2016, which is when Grande first officially confirmed that they were dating during her visit on The Elllen DeGeneres Show. On the show, Ellen mentions how three years prior, in 2013, Ariana had said that they were just “homies”, but then mentions that the two were living together. When asked if they were happy together, Ariana gives a shy confirmation. Later on that month, videos surfaced of the couple leaving the upscale restaurant Nobu in New York City, giving an obvious affirmation of their relationship status.
It seemed as though their budding romance was the centerpiece of Mac Miller’s latest studio album, The Divine Feminine, released back at the same month that Ariana confirmed their relationship status on Ellen. Not only did Mac allude to a mysterious lady figure on the majority of his tracks, but he even had Grande feature on the song “My Favorite Part” as well as on the introduction of the album.
Mac’s album wasn’t the first time they collaborated though. Back in March 2013, Ariana Grande released her first single, titled “The Way”, which included Mac Miller as a featured artist. As of May 2018, the music video has amassed over 336M views on YouTube. Although their relationship wouldn’t be confirmed until three years later, the two can be seen being more than friendly throughout the music video, with the tension culminating in a kiss at the end of it. Although it was just a music video, the romantic themes displayed in the lyrics and the video seem like they could be a little more than just acting.
Around the time that the single came out, Mac Miller commented on his “friendship” with Ariana Grande in multiple interviews, in which he always spoke highly of her, even saying that “she’s like an angel”. Mac says that they would often record music together, particularly music that was a departure from her mainstream sound, and that would never be released. Mac told about how the two met, which was apparently over Twitter. Here’s part of an interview Mac Miller did with Hard Knock TV.
If you ever interview her, she’ll tell you an awesome story about her label person telling her that she should work with me, and her saying that “he looks weird.”… But I am weird; she was correct. But she didn’t know that there was a really genuine person. She thought I was just all weird and no heart… She’s like the greatest person in the world. She’s like an angel; she’s very nice, she’s a sweet girl…. I always have her come over here, and just like, make weird songs that won’t ever come out.
Ariana Grande herself spoke about their “friendship” too in interviews that took place after she dropped her single with Mac Miller. In an interview with Hot 97 back in September 2013, Ariana says that Mac Miller is one of her “best friends in the world”. In the interview, she gives slight hints that there could be a romantic element to their relationship, but is unwilling to divulge any juicy details of their relationship at that moment in time.
Unfortunately, the star-crossed lovers are no longer in a relationship as of the beginning of this month. On May 9, TMZ reported that Ariana Grande and Mac Miller have quietly ended their romantic relationship. It is reported that they split because their work schedules became too busy to manage a serious relationship, but there’s always a chance there’s more to their split than that. Still, Mac and Ariana are said to still be best friends and that they still love each other, just platonically at this point. A cause for suspicion of that claim could be supported by the fact that Mac Miller and Ariana Grande have recently unfollowed each other on Instagram… But you be the judge.
It might be a reach, but Mac’s recent power pole scandal may have something to do with his recent break-up with Ariana. Perhaps the emotional turmoil he’s going through led Mac to make some rash decisions, like not opting for a cab after a night out of drinking. Not only did he do damage to a public utility, but he damaged his G-Wagon as well. If this is the same G-Wagon that Mac talked about in his Power 106 Los Angeles interview back in 2016, Mac might be disappointed in himself for damaging the car, but this may be an opportunity to invest in a car with a driver side cup holder. Here’s what Mac said about his G-Wagon on Power 106.
I’m not a crazy dude, the only stupid purchase I’ve ever made is the one whip I have. I bought a G-Wagon, like, all the way custom, everything. Had it shipped from Germany… But here’s the thing though. My whole life, I’m like, ‘I want the white G-Wagon, I want the whole AMG, the nicest you can get, send it.’ I go sit in this motherf**ker, there’s no driver side cupholder!… $186,000 for a car, what do I do with my iced tea!
In all seriousness though, it’s good that there have been no reports of injury from the car crash, but it’s an unfortunate reality that the incident occurred. In some of his most recent interviews that came out shortly after the September 2016 release of The Divine Feminine, Mac Miller has talked about his newfound reverence for sober living. One of those interviews was on the Sway in the Morning talk show:
I’ve proved to myself that I can be faded all the time, make great music, and make it day to day, and carry on. But like, all of a sudden just being completely clearheaded was like, that was the new high. You know what I mean? Because it’s like, ‘oh wow. I’m feeling things,’ and I was kind of scared that I wouldn’t be able to create, but I was like, ‘wow, I’m a superhero’, you know what I mean? This is actual, real happiness, this is real sadness. This isn’t like me going to the pharmacy trying to pick an emotion and put it together, this is [the] world I’ve been hiding from.
For those that are unaware, Mac Miller has struggled with drug addiction in earlier stages of his career, particularly with the drug known as lean. In an interview Mac did with Complex back in 2013, his lean addiction is said to have been somewhat provoked by overly scathing reviews of his debut album, Blue Slide Park. One of the particularly bad reviews came from Pitchfork, which gave his album one out of five stars. You can read that album review below.
At the 2000 VMAs, Eminem’s performance of “The Real Slim Shady” featured him walking across Sixth Avenue in Manhattan and into Radio City Music Hall followed by a few hundred extras that had been styled in his image, bleached hair and all. The performance was an arresting, and very literal, visual representation of the song’s claim of there being “a million of us just like me.” Pittsburgh rapper Mac Miller is having his “‘The Real Slim Shady’ at the VMAS” moment right now, even if he’ll never actually perform there. There are hundreds of thousands of listeners trailing him intensely– Blue Slide Park sold just about 145,000 copes in its first week in stores, making it the first independently distributed debut album to go No. 1 in 16 years. And the reason Miller’s mass of fans follow him is not because of his music, at least not completely. It’s because he looks just like them, because they can see themselves up on the stage behind him, if not next to him. It’s a presumptive conclusion, but it’s hard to find much, if anything, in Miller’s music that suggests otherwise. He is an outsider, but he brings no outsider’s perspective to his music. Forget Eminem, Miller’s point of view is less unique than Asher Roth’s or Childish Gambino’s. He lusts after fame, money, and women, and he smokes weed and parties. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with that; it is rap music, of course. But it does raise the question of why Miller is so popular, because despite his claim of being a cross between John Lennon and UGK, he’s mostly just a crushingly bland, more intolerable version of Wiz Khalifa without the chops, desire, or pocketbook for enjoyable singles. Unless you buy into Miller’s persona– and why would you?– Blue Slide Park offers you nothing that you can’t find done more much artfully by, say, Curren$y. This is, in a way, rap music’s fault. Mac Miller has been called “frat rap,” and while there’s a slight truth to that, the term leaves unacknowledged the fact that frat guys used to engage with the rap world writ large. That interaction may have involved an unhealthy appreciation for Jurassic 5, but it also involved rocking YoungbloodZ and Ying Yang Twins songs at parties. The pop world has left rap behind, save four or five rappers, and it’s opened a door for someone like Mac Miller to seize the college-aged, white-male fanbase. If that fanbase is interacting less with rap music, then maybe they’ve rallied around Miller because he also barely engages with the wider rap world. Consider the fact that Blue Slide Park has not one feature– not a guest verse or chorus. For a contemporary rap album, let alone a No. 1 rap album, that is basically unheard-of. Before you consider that to be a noble pursuit, the album could’ve used somebody, anybody, to break up the monotony of Miller on the mic. Miller’s world is a hermetic one, and unless it’s one you inhabit, the album holds no appeal. It’s a normal rap album, sure, but as listeners we should strive for more than a no-stakes work by a guy wearing the same streetwear brands and snapbacks as everyone else, who has merely found a niche and exploited it. Miller’s hustle can’t be knocked, and it shouldn’t be, but his art is 144,487 times less remarkable than his first week sales numbers would have you believe. His success is not a mirage, no. But it is a projection.
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The negative energy from the review stayed on Mac’s back as he went into 2012 Macadelic Tour. Over six months, Mac Miller played 53 shows, 20 of which were in Europe. Mac started using promethazine to cope with the stress of tour, and he became addicted to it at some point down the line, and his usage spiraled out of control during the tour. As his addiction worsened, people close to Mac urged him to quit. In November 2012, he quit lean for good right before he started shooting his reality show, Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family. One of Mac’s childhood friends, Jimmy Murton, told Complex about how he was impressed with Mac’s determination to get sober.
I’ve never really been worried about Mac except during that lean period. I saw him in that mentality I remember being in—you’re getting fucked up because you feel like you need to. You’re trying to get away from everything… For how much he was drinking, it’s unbelievable that he stopped. It’s definitely one of the most impressive things he’s ever done.
Since the release of The Divine Feminine Mac Miller hasn’t put out any new projects. The bio section of his Twitter and Instagram both read “To Be Continued…”, which probably makes many of his fans restless for the Mac Miller saga to do just that. His social media accounts don’t have any hints that any new music will be coming soon, but it’s not unlikely that Mac is taking time to develop his Larry Fisherman persona, which is the identity he uses as a producer to release beats. In fact, “larryfisherman” is Mac’s current account name on Instagram.
In one of his more recent interviews from October 2017, one of the central discussion topics was his work as a producer. Additionally, a few of the more recent posts on Mac Miller’s Instagram show him playing piano and even trumpet, which may indicate that his focus has shifting away from rapping and towards a much broader scope of musicianship. However, considering his recent break-up with Ariana Grande, Mac may decide to channel any lingering emotional energy into something that his fans can sink their teeth into. Stay tuned for more Mac Miller updates!
