Mac Miller - Blue Slide Park (2011)

Somehow or another, Pittsburgh native, Mac Miller managed to become phenomenon in 2011.  Even before the release of his debut album, Blue Slide Park, there wasn’t a party playlist in all of North Dakota that didn’t have a Mac Miller son or two on it, as far as I could tell.  Coming off of the popularity of his mixtapes, Blue Slide Park became the first independently released debut album to hit #1 since Doggfood in 1995.

The production is predominantly handled by Pittsburgh beat maker, I.D. Labs.  Likely, as a bi-product of Mac trying to paint himself as weed rapper, the production is largely very slow and mellow.  Aside from a few bright spots, namely “Party on Fifth Ave” and “Under the Weather,” the beats are bland and forgettable.  I had a hard time listening to the whole album in one sitting, the blandness of the production makes it difficult to pay attention to for than a few songs at a time.

Mac Miller brings absolutely nothing to the table with his vocals.  He’s like an amalgamation of all the worst characteristics of all your favorite rappers and by no means a combination of UGK and John Lennon as he claims on “Smile Back.”  The message of the album seems to be that he likes to party, smoke weed and have sex; which is exactly what he rapped about on every one of his mix tapes.  There’s enough rappers like that out right now, we don’t need another Wiz Khalifa.  I’m not trying to say that you have to tackle major social issues in order to make a good album, but you have to have charisma.  Mac’s delivery is almost painful.  He sounds like he’s got emphysema, which may or may not be intentional, given his desperately trying to convince us that he smokes incredible amounts of marijuana.

Blue Slide Park is a bad album.  There just isn’t a time that would be appropriate for playing it.  It’s too mellow for parties, too shallow for individual listening and too bland for smoking to.  The worst part is this was Mac Miller’s attempt to establish himself as an artist.  The cover and first couple tracks lead you to believe that it’s going to be a deep, introspectively focused album, but after the title track, the whole concept just goes out the window in favor of sex, drugs and partying.  Whatever, Mac was trying to accomplish with Blue Slide Park, he utterly failed.  I’m upset that I turned down A Kingdom for Keflings to listen to this.

Best Tracks: Blue Slide Park, Party on 5th Ave, Under the Weather

Overall: 22/100