The late Pennsylvania emcee Mac Miller was a one-of-a-kind artist and showed ingenuity when it came to carefully crafting bodies of work. During the 2010s, he acquired a cult following in his hometown of Pittsburgh and, as a white rapper, began turning heads with his incredible material.
In 2010, Miller signed with the independent label Rostrum Records, and, following this seminal moment, he soared to fame. Aged 18, Miller released a series of breakthrough mixtapes, K.I.D.S and Best Day Ever. Prior to these two mixtapes, Miller had already recorded and released three. However, with the facilities and producers of Rostrum, he ascended to dizzying heights.
But My Mackin’ Ain’t Easy, The Jukebox: Prelude to Class Clown and The High Life all performed exceptionally well on the mixtape-sharing website DatPiff, and by 2011 he was releasing albums. His debut, Blue Side Park, is considered a classic. However, his sophomore project, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, is highly intriguing and has an interesting story attached to it.
During a 2013 interview with VIBE magazine, the lyricist (real name Malcolm McCormick) unveiled that his DJ suggested a movie they could play at the album’s listening party. However, McCormick didn’t expect the movie to sync up perfectly with the album, which is what it did.
Speaking to the publication about the movie Turtle, Miller explained, “Well, Clockwork (Mac’s DJ) did shrooms… and told me about this movie. At first I just kind of brushed it off. At the time, I was searching for the perfect movie to play with the sound off with the album. The day before the listening session in New York, I was still looking for the perfect one. Originally, I was just going to chop up a bunch of different movie parts. But me my boy Jimmy, finally decided to watch it, and it just synced up perfectly!”
When asked if their was any editing involved to help the movie sync with the album, Miller unveiled, “Nope, it was scary how perfect it synced up. How crazy is it that the scenes from the movie switch when the songs switch? When Loaded Lux was dissing me, the waves were crashing. And then I started rapping after that the sunlight was coming up.”
He concluded, “When Jay Electronica was rapping, there was chaos everywhere. It was crazy as hell. The movie is called Turtle: The Incredible Journey. I just clicked to a random part and started watching it, and it worked perfectly. It was kind of creepy. Jimmy almost cried like four times.”
The movie worked with the album perfectly, according to McCormick, and the listening party was a great success. You can the lyricist talking about the movie in the video below.
