Mac Miller

Rapper Mac Miller was a success pretty much from the start, and though his career was relatively short, he became a major presence in hip hop.

He was born Malcolm McCormick in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on January 19, 1992, and began rapping while he was still in high school. Miller made his frst mixtape, But My Mackin' Ain't Easy, at the age of 15 as EZ Mac. He released a pair of mixtapes under his own name, The Jukebox: Prelude to Class Clown and The High Life, and got a deal with Rostrum Records in 2010, who released the K.I.D.S. mixtape that year. More mixtapes and singles followed, and by the time Miller released his first official album, Blue Slide Park, in 2010, he'd already made a name for himself and begun selling out his shows. Hitting No. 1 on the pop, R&B, and rap charts, the album solidified Miller's position as the Next Big Thing in hip hop. But success came at a price for Miller, who developed substance abuse problems while touring, starting a cycle of troubles that would eventually end in tragedy.

Nevertheless, his second album, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, was nearly as bit a hit as its predecessor. Its making was even chronicled in a reality series on MTV2 called "Mac Miller and the Most Dope Family". In 2014 Miller kicked things up to the next level by signing a big-money deal with Warner Bros. Miller's third album, GO:OD AM, was released the following year. By the time his next LP, The Divine Feminine, came out, Miller became even more of a household name through his high-profile romantic involvement with Ariana Grande. But even though his career seemed to continually go from strength to strength, Miller would release only one more album, 2018's Swimming, parts of which seemingly dealt with his recent breakup with Grande. Just a month after the album's release, on September 7, he was found dead in his home in Pittsburgh. Many speculated that Miller's death at the age of 26 was drug-related, but the official cause of his death was not released to the public.