Since the dawn of music, substance use and abuse have consistently been a hot topic of discussion amongst all genres of music, especially hip hop. Most lyrics have paid tribute to substance use and their blissful affects, emphasizing euphoric feelings and unique experiences. Other lyrics have expressed distress about the negative consequences that comes with drug use, such as addiction, and even death. While some musicians advocate the use of drugs, most usually show concern for substance abuse and the dangers of excessive drug use.
Music doesn’t directly cause people to use drugs, but it does influence them to try them. Plenty artists have struggled with drug use and used music as a way to cope, informing the world of their struggles, like Mac Miller.
Mac Miller has always been open about his experience with substance abuse and the impact it had on his life. Mac Miller seemed to be at his peak during his relationship with Ariana Grande, until they split up.
In 2016, Miller released The Devine Feminine, in which Grande was very involved with and doubled as a love letter to his woman. He went from “you and me against the world” to “me against the world,” and unfortunately, the more he tried to convince himself that he was doing fine without her, the more he suffered. His most recent album Swimming is an ode to his emotional distress, as well as the way the drugs were taking a toll on his subconscious.
At its brightest, Swimming sounds an amicable narration of a man that is, involuntary, a bachelor.
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“ She followed all my directions. It was really easy to contact her and respond very fast as well. ”
On “Small Worlds,” he murmurs, “I know I probably need to do better, f**k whoever, keep my s**t to-gether,” on a standoffish beat. He slows things down and softly raps about the world being so small, as the title details. The song is slow tempo as he considers his flaws, indicating he’s well-aware of his personal issues and definitely down on himself. “What’s the Use,” the third song on the album, he comes off way more lighthearted, doing without his inner malevolence, escorted by modest vocals from Snoop Dogg and Thundercat. Miller’s flow is eccentric as he belittles himself; he was attempting other ways of crooning an illusion of happiness, even for a second. You can tell he’s trying to make the best of a bad situation and find some humor, even though it’s far from humorous, as his arrest for DUI and hit and run in May conveys.
Ariana Grande’s decision to end the “toxic relationship” between her and Miller left the public in awe, but was no surprise due to Millers extensive openness about his struggles with addiction. But if you’re looking for the newest hot topic in gossip from Swimming, you will be no short of disappointed. At the album’s gloomiest—“Self Care,” is a downhearted claim of his pain-numbing routine, or “Hurt Feelings,” which emphasizes his mental state—Mac combats the proposal that someone in particular could be to blame for him hitting rock bottom. The most you’ll hear him vent about the intricacies of his personal life is confessing life was more painful without someone by his side than when there was. On “Perfecto,” Mac dolorously notes, “She put me back together when I was out of order.”
This sort of despondent yearning is old news. Today, you can’t find hardly any chart-topping rapper that isn’t speaking of drugs and its effects. But he explores his headtop, contemplating with great detail, arguably more than an artist, like Drake, who snags the emotional vulnerabilities of his listeners to hastily release the next hit. This album was in no way rushed, it’s evident he put a vast amount of time and thought into this project, with healing at the focal point. Swimming is most captivating when it details the simple, candid things that he tells himself in order to keep his faith intact. Although he doesn’t seem too convinced, on “2009” he says with apathy, “Every day I wake up and breathe, I don’t have it all but that’s all right with me.”
He shows no signs of his guileless former self that shot him to fame when he was only a senior in high school. Where he used to boast about his music persistently, on Swimming he primarily takes it slow, letting the beats relax, paving the way for the album’s tranquil aura and modest piano melodies. He’s also singing more than ever before, and he sounds better than ever before doing it. Humble as is, his voice is eloquent in ways his dull appearance could never be, asserting his forbearance without turning sadness into a type of pronounced spectacle.
It’s his melodic verses, and overwhelming flow on Swimming that’s most effective. An autobiography; effortless, poetic, and well-versed. Swimming is an outstanding album, maybe even better than popular artists’ recent works, and all the more genuine. He may be unable to escape his own head, as he laments on the opener “Come Back to Earth,” but he’s decided to make himself as comfortable as possible while he’s trapped there.
The week of August 13, Vulture conducted his last interview and what was the topic of discussion? Depression, “I really wouldn’t want just happiness,” he said, “And I don’t want just sadness either. I don’t want to be depressed. I want to be able to have good days and bad days… I can’t imagine not waking up sometimes and being like, ‘I don’t feel like doing s**t.’ And then having days where you wake up and you feel on top of the world.” He was always very outspoken about complications with drug abuse and even death, especially on Swimming. You can hear the diligence and pain throughout the entire album, even if he has trouble expressing it. Mac Miller passed away at 26, a month after his last album release, due to an accidental drug overdose of fentanyl, alcohol, and cocaine on September 7, 2018.
About Mac Miller: Album Swimming And Others. (2022, Jul 16). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/about-mac-miller-album-swimming-and-others/
