Crazy Work Ethic

Mac Miller (AKA Malcolm McCormick) is an industry unto himself. The Pittsburgh MC/producer/muso has a fledgling label, a hotly anticipated second album, buzzworthy collaboration projects and a reality TV show. “It's crazy,” says the 21-year-old at his piano. “I think that's the reason why I'm here where I'm at today – I always credit it to my work ethic above anything else.” Now McCormick is headed to Australia for the first time. “I've talked to a lot of people who are out there and they've all said incredible things. I'm just very excited to get out and see for myself.”

Pittsburgh is known for producing steel, not hip hop. But recently the steel industry has declined, the city reinventing itself economically. And we have Pittsburgh rap superstars like Wiz Khalifa and McCormick, both signed to local indie Rostrum Records. McCormick taught himself various instruments, but then began to freestyle. He aired influential mixtapes. His 2011 LP Blue Slide Park debuted at No. 1 Stateside, the first independent debut album to do so since Tha Dogg Pound's Dogg Food in 1995. McCormick has launched his own imprint, REMember Music, to showcase Pittsburgh talent. “The scene in Pittsburgh is actually really awesome right now.”

This year McCormick will present his second, Watching Movies With The Sound Off, possibly addressing his past struggle with promethazine dependency. “It's gonna be very interesting. It's a very cerebral project. I'm excited to see what people say, because it's something new and I've been working really hard on it. You never know how people are gonna take something. It's a whole different thing when it's a part of yourself that you're giving out. So we'll see what happens.” Word is that, among guests like ScHoolboy Q, Odd Future's elusive Earl Sweatshirt pops up. “Yeah, yeah, yeah! Earl's on a joint and [he] actually produced the intro, which is crazy.”

Fans will also be hoping to hear McCormick's Pink Slime EP, with Pharrell Williams (“a legend”). The MC has teasingly aired cuts such as Onaroll. “We really liked the chemistry and just the music that we were making,” he says. The duo have ten songs.

Beyond that, McCormick still intends to deliver the much vaunted mixtape 92 Til Infinity with DJ Jazzy Jeff, though collaborating has proven logistically challenging, the pair living in different cities. “That project is so near and dear to my heart that I want to sit down with him and really finish it.” The mixtape will have that “classic hip hop sound” McCormick digs. “It's important to me to progress music and to work on it, trying to come up with a new sound, something that hasn't existed ever before, but it's also just so much fun to me to do some classic hip hop shit for this project.”

It hasn't all been glowy for him, haters (and critics) aside. Lord Finesse filed a US$10 million copyright lawsuit over his sampling Hip 2 Da Game on 2010's mixtape joint Kool-Aid And Frozen Pizza. Complex listed the case in its The 25 Biggest Hip Hop Fails Of 2012, noting that the '90s MC/beatmaker, who was credited, himself freely sampled Oscar Peterson. The matter has just been confidentially settled. McCormick can't discuss it directly but, as a musician, claims to still “love” the art of sampling.

The YouTube fave will reveal other facets of his life in his upcoming MTV reality programme, Mac Miller And The Most Dope Family. “It's weird, man – it's something different,” McCormick says. “The reality TV thing is interesting, but I'm excited. I've been through a lot of different emotions with it and how I feel about it, but I'm actually really excited to have a show with my best friends on national TV – that's pretty cool.”

Mac Miller will be playing the following dates:

Wednesday 20 February - Enmore Theatre, Sydney NSW
Thursday 21 February - Palace Theatre, Melbourne VIC
Friday 22 February - Arena, Brisbane QLD
Saturday 23 February - Metropolis, Fremantle WA