Mac Miller; A Pittsburgh native, Musical inventor and a person who is far from perfect. He is also the creator of the album titled “GO:OD AM”. This album, along with any of the other music he has made would fall under the genre of rap and like Mac and his music, others such as Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler The Creator share the same likes of musical progression, artistry, storytelling and authentic emotion. GO:OD AM is no exception either. Let me take you on an ascension through mac’s life as a struggling addict and his slipping grip on those around him as well as his fight to reclaim the life and relationships he once had.

Starting off, Mac Miller sets “Doors” as the first track. As mentioned earlier, Mac is an addict and in this song he sounds as if he is trying to find a balance between asking for forgiveness from his loved ones and rationalizing his addiction. In the song, He drops the line “...Didn’t mean to cause you pain, I just needed to escape, Ain’t saying that I’m sober, I’m just in a better place…”. From this you can hear his conflicting points of views. Later in the song he says “...These doors will close, and people change..”. This line shows that he is also deciding to forget about forgiveness at the moment and do what he wants while he’s still alive. This idea leads him into the next song, “Brand Name”. He begins his verse with the lines “We inbetween heaven and hell, ---- a 9 to 5, I’d rather end up dead or in jail”. His expression of this state of mind shows that he is deciding to embrace the wild lifestyle and accepting the clear end result of it. He expresses this decision a lot more throughout the song. He drops lines like “I’m too high, you can’t reach me with the cell phone, No goodbyes, No hellos”, “You don’t want this life I live, You’d rather have a wife and kids.” and “...To everyone who sell me drugs, Don’t mix it with that --------, I’m hoping not to join the twenty seven club.” All these lines, especially the last shows that Mac believes he is on top of the world and is riding his highs unconcerned about the consequences. Over the next few songs Mac boasts this lifestyle. I really love the lyrics and I relate to most of them. I also love the production of these few songs too, especially “Doors” which was produced by Tyler The Creator who is also one of my favorite artists of all time. In my mind I’ve split up this album into 3 parts and these first few songs (Doors, Brand Name, Rush Hour, Two Matches and 100 Grand Kids) I would describe as Mac’s reckless stage.

Later on in the album we get to the song “Weekend”. In this song Mac expresses his realization that the lifestyle he is leading is turning him into a bad person. Mac drops the bars “I got a system filled up with toxins…”, “Getting high to deal with my problems” and “but I be good by the weekend”. All of these lines are said in a remorseful tone as he is starting to see that he’s been messing up lately. The next song on the album after “Weekend” is “In The Bag”. This song actually makes fun of the lifestyle that Mac is trying to move away from in a dark, comedic tone. You can see this comedic outlook multiple times in the song, especially when he says “When I was younger, I was just a little wild ------------, Tryna be like all the people on the television.” and “Your mom work an extra job just to get you Jordans, Just so you can show up at your school looking fresh saying “I don’t know ‘bout you, but me? I’m important” Shows that Mac is mocking people who exhibit this behavior and how he’s growing an increasing disdain for it. These set of songs (Time Flies, Weekend, Clubhouse, In The bag and Break The Law) all show the switch in the state of mind that Mac had. When I listen to these songs I like to think of it as the phase of realization for Mac and I also connect with this part of his album and the whole idea of realizing bad habits and fixing them before they destroy you. This positive change leads Mac into the last part of his album.

Towards the end of the album, Mac lays down the track titled “Perfect Circle/Godspeed”. Throughout the song, Mac points out that he’s better than his addiction. You can hear this when he says “I moved up from a private to a sergeant, you can see it from a scarface”. This is mac’s way of saying that he has matured and is past all of the drugs, money and random women he had been dealing with. In the whole second half of the song Mac writes a confession-like letter to his loved ones and his girlfriend. He expresses things like “Everybody say I need rehab, Cause I’m speedin' with a blindfold on and won’t be long, ‘til they watching me crash and they don’t wanna see that, They don’t want me to OD and have to talk to my mother, Telling her they could have done more to help me and she’ll be crying saying that she’ll do anything to have me back…”. This part points out that he’s woken up to his addiction and is handing it to avoid any heartbreak. The last few songs (Perfect Circle, Godspeed, When In Rome, ROS, Cut The Check, Ascension, Jump and The Festival) solidify Mac’s entry into being an adult and being a new person all together. I would say that this part is Mac’s final stage of committing to being sober for his loved ones and his self.

The album GO:OD AM is a journey through Mac’s life and the learning process that he went through too. I would recommend this album to teens and young adults who lived or are living a rough lifestyle and need something to boost hopes of remission from it. Every time I listen to this album I too am brought back to tough times in my life but it also reminds me of how Mac and other music like his helped me pull through.