Mac Miller released “The Divine Feminine” exactly two years and four days ago. Two days ago his vigil was held, because thirteen days ago he overdosed.
This death is heartbreaking for a lot of reasons; Mac was only twenty-six years old and, by all accounts, was finally in a really good place after years of battling addiction.
From the first time I heard Mac’s music, I was invested in its poeticism. He always paid amazing attention to his lyrics and, in addition to writing really damn good songs, was writing some really damn good poems.
In the wake of this death, I’ve been revisiting some of his music and, in general, been thinking more about the relationship between poetry and rap. So, for today’s blog post, I’m going to leave a list of tracks which I think are just as much poems as they are songs. I hope you enjoy these, and if you have any contributions I’d love to hear them.
In no particular order, here they are:
- Billy Not Really by Death Grips
- Black Quarterback by Death Grips
- Voila by Death Grips
- No Love by Death Grips
- Hunger Games by Death Grips
- Guillotine by Death Grips
- TEETH by BROCKHAMPTON
- JUNKY by BROCKHAMPTON
- FIGHT by BROCKHAMPTON
- BREAKFAST by BROCKHAMPTON
- Popeye by Quelle Chris, I, Led, Mndsgn
- Gold Purple Orange by Jean Grae, Quelle Chris, Dane Orr
- Peacock by Jean Grae, Quelle Chris, Dane Orr
- Doing Better Than Ever by Jean Grae, Quelle Chris, Ashok “Dap” Kondabolu
- Good Friday by WHY?
- There Was Plenty Time Before Us by Deem Spencer
- Edenville by Deca
- Ain’t it Funny by Danny Brown
- Hurt Feelings by Mac Miller
- Jet Fuel by Mac Miller
- So It Goes by Mac Miller
- I’m Not Real by Mac Miller, Earl Sweatshirt
- Perfect Circle / God Speed by Mac Miller
- Take Advantage of the Naysayer by Milo
- Going No Place by Milo, Elucid
- Yomilo by Milo
- Objectifying Rabbits by Milo, Open Mike Eagle
- Almond Milk Paradise by Milo, Safari Al
- Freedom (Interlude) by Noname
- Self by Noname
- Window by Noname, Phoelix
- Blaxploitation by Noname
- With You by Noname
And here’s everything tossed into a public Spotify playlist:
I’m not sure how I missed this post when it went up, but I’m very grateful to have this playlist. I’m not a big rap listener, but there’s no reason that can’t change. It’s good to have a place to start.