Key Takeaways
- In 2013, Mac Miller spoke to Complex about his 25 favorite albums of all time, revealing the eclectic influences behind his own sound.
- His list ranges from classics like Bob Dylan's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to hip-hop staples like Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), A Tribe Called Quest's Midnight Marauders, and 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin'.
- Mac also highlights left-field and contemporary favorites—from Portishead's Dummy and Flying Lotus' Los Angeles to King Krule's EP, Thundercat's Apocalypse, and even Lil B's classic Choices and Flowers—showing how wide-ranging his taste was across eras and genres.
Back in June 2013, when Mac Miller was releasing his sophomore album, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, we caught up with the young rapper and asked him a very important question: what were his 25 favorite albums.
Because Mac was Mac—an eclectic mind who was raised on a wide spectrum of music—his list featured everyone from Bob Dylan to Bob Marley to 50 Cent to King Krule.
After first threatening to make a troll list where he listed the Backstreet Boys at the top of his list, Mac talked about the Harlem artist who inspired him to start rapping, what people really mean to say when they hate on Lil Wayne, and why he thought ScHoolboy Q was going to drop the best TDE album yet.
That level of exploration can be seen in the music of Mac; there's maybe no better example than the electric Swimming, which was released a month before Mac would die.
Today is the eighth-year anniversary of Swimming. To celebrate the album, we decided to rerun the list. Here are Mac Miller's 25 favorite albums of all time. (For more on Mac’s taste, check out his favorite movies, too.)
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This story was originally published in 2013. it has since been updated.
Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)
Label: Columbia
Mac Miller: "I love that record. I love that cover art. I really love Bob Dylan. My brother is so into Bob Dylan. I saw Dylan perform live one time. Front row. In Pittsburgh. General admission. I was like 10 or 12 and I just pushed my way up to the front by myself because there was no seats or anything. He was like old though, might've been one of his last tours."
The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Label: Capitol
Mac Miller: "I got a John Lennon tattoo dude. [Laughs.] I love what they represent. I love all the shit when they started getting really weird. I kind of identify with them, not with like in massiveness, but like in their journey. I'm a huge Beatles fan, from when I was a little kid. [Asking how you got into the Beatles is] like asking, 'How did you get into Jesus?' [Laughs.] I'm just saying, it just exists. How did you get into sandwiches? I found [out about them myself], I was very independent. I taught myself how to tie my shoe and how to write. I was reading by four. [Laughs.] I was a prodigy."
Prince, Controversy (1981)
Label: Warner Bros.
Mac Miller: "I love that album. I love that song. [Laughs.] Prince is my idol, that's who I aspire to be like. Prince invited me to a show. I couldn't believe it, I cried. But I couldn't go because I was shooting a video. I can't believe he gave Gotye an award. I would do anything to do [a song with Prince]."
Bob Marley & The Wailers, Legend (1984)
Label: Tuff Gong/Island
Mac Miller: "Bob Marley makes me happy. I realized, if you're ever sad [just play Bob Marley.] Like this one time, when I was in Las Vegas, we were going crazy with the Molly and then having a horrible come down. It was really bad, postpartum depression. Bob Marley saved everyones life. It was eight in the morning and everyone in the whole hotel room was dancing, singing Bob Marley together."
A Tribe Called Quest, Midnight Marauders (1993)
Label: Jive, BMG
Mac Miller: "Yeah, for the real hip-hop!"
Wu-Tang Clan, Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)
Label: Loud
Mac Miller: "That reeeeeeeal hiiiiiiip-hop. [Laughs.]"
Portishead, Dummy (1994)
Label: Go! Beat
Mac Miller: "That was my shit this past year. Fucking incredible. E-Dan put me onto Portishead. That sound has so much texture. On Dummy, I believe that they actually sampled shit. Then, on Portishead they sampled themselves only."
D'Angelo, Brown Sugar (1995)
Label: EMI
Mac Miller: "It makes me so happy and makes me feel so good. It like, goes through your veins. [Laughs.] Get it? Brown sugar is heroin. I just love that album so much. It's like a drug in itself. So after I've tackled brown sugar...[Laughs.]"
Big L, Lifestylez ov da Poor & Dangerous (1995)
Label: Columbia
Mac Miller: "That's the album that made me start rapping. Everybody knows that about me. That's who I used to try to be like. I used to be a fucking straight gangster street rapper from the projects of New York. Did I ever play you when I was a gritty New York rapper from the projects? It's definitely on YouTube. It's crazy, I was 15, I was robbing people, and I was into the East Coast/West Coast beef [in my raps].
"In one of my raps my line was like, 'On the East Side we ride on the weed high/Jacking cats packing fat stacks in their Levis/Rap stacks for cash that we divide/Fee-fi we ain't going down where you reside, creeping/Running through your house while you sleeping.' I had a line where I said, 'Stay strapped with the gat to your kneecap.' I was bad, gang banging. Not to be fucked with. Hardcore motherfucker named Mac. That shit was crazy."
Fugees, The Score (1996)
Label: Ruffhouse, Columbia
Mac Miller: "Who doesn't like Lauryn Hill? [Laughs.] Anybody? I love how that album plays. I love the the sounds used in that album, I'm going to play you the greatest sound in the world off that album, one time. This sound [Plays The Fugees' 'Zealots'] is the greatest sound in the world."
Erykah Badu, Baduizm (1997)
Label: Kedar/Universal
Mac Miller: "That shit just reminds me of like driving by yourself at nighttime, on like a highway, and no other cars are on the street and you're doing a long road trip. It's like four in the morning and this album is keeping you there."
Elliott Smith, Either/Or (1997)
Label: Kill Rock Stars
Mac Miller: "That represents my young depressed music when I was a sad little kid. The happiest little kids are the saddest little kids when they're alone. [Laughs.] Elliott Smith is a genius. He's incredible, but he's just very sad."
OutKast, Aquemini (1998)
Label: LaFace/Arista
Mac Miller: [Overexcited hand motions.]
Modest Mouse, The Moon & Antarctica (2000)
Label: Epic
Mac Miller: "His voice is like so unique. I love that about Modest Mouse. I've never heard a voice like that in my life. But it's sick. That album is awesome. 'Gravity Rides Everything' is awesome."
50 Cent, Get Rich Or Die Tryin' (2003)
Label: Aftermath, Interscope, Shady
Mac Miller: "Fucking brilliant. I love that album. You can play 'Many Men' at any point in life and it will succeed. [Laughs.]"
MF Doom, Mm.. Food (2004)
Label: Rhymesayers Entertainment
Mac Miller: "I just like love the texture of his voice against the beats, like, it's very 'Fuck you.' He kind of throws it down there, but it's very purposeful. It sounds effortless, but everything is purposeful. I've never talked to him about it, or talk to him in general so I wouldn't know, but records like 'Vomitspit' are the fucking shit. It's great music for like anything in life. You can play it anytime, it's good."
Lil Wayne, Da Drought 3 (2007)
Label: N/A
Mac Miller: "I'm so sick of people saying things about Wayne. I'm so sick of it. I understand that the reason that everyone talks shit is because they know that he at one point was the Best Rapper Alive and they just wish he could get back to that place. All the things people say isn't what they actually want to say. They just say angry things, but what they really want to say is emotional like, 'I really just miss you.' But Wayne doesn't care...I'm excited for the tour."
Kanye West, Graduation (2007)
Label: Roc-A-Fella, Def Jam
Mac Miller: "Kanye West man, he's fucking Yeezus dude. It's a great album. I remember the impact of it. The one thing I love about Kanye is he's one of the people I can remember listening to from the beginning. Maybe not as like his own mixtape shit because I was young and not in the mixtape game, but I've listened to every Kanye album as its been released and that's why I like Kanye a lot. Like when The Fugees' The Score came out, how old was I? Like two? So this is like tight because every album I was there, like next door to him."
Radiohead, In Rainbows (2007)
Label: N/A
Mac Miller: "That album is alive, it like exists. I was listening to it in the car and I texted Flying Lotus like, 'Why is this album so amazing?' His response was, 'Because it sounds like it was all made in one sitting.' It sounds like they made it right there."
Flying Lotus, Los Angeles (2008)
Label: Warp
Mac Miller: "How he puts together albums never ceases to amaze me. It's like it's just one song, but not one song, but it's one song. It's a real journey."
King Krule, King Krule EP (2011)
Label: True Panther
Mac Miller: "I believe King Krule is from the UK. He's just fucking incredible. His music is incredible. That dude is unlike anything you've ever heard. It's beautiful."
The BasedGod, Choices and Flowers (2012)
Label: N/A
Mac Miller: "No, it's not a troll pick. I just love the idea of it so much. He made a classical album bruh. I'm swole because I wanted to do that. I wanted to make a classical album so bad, I'm still going to do that. But he's next level bruh, next level understanding of the world around him."
The Duck Hunters (Most Dope), Duck Butter Vol. 1 (2013)
Label: Most Dope
Mac Miller: "One of the greatest things that's ever happened to music. You gotta research it, you'll find it. It's everywhere."
Thundercat, Apocalypse (2013)
Label: Brainfeeder
Mac Miller: "It's incredible. I love Thundercat bro, I think he's like one of the most special people in the world. Everyone should listen to him. The energy he brings is important. [I've gotten to know him.] He's my homie. Everyone [in L.A. is] just supporting each other. Everyone is kind of like on the verge, It would be so tight to me if all of us were just the only things that mattered. I really think that nothing else would even matter. No offence to anybody."
Schoolboy Q, Oxymoron (2013)
Label: Top Dawg Entertainment, Interscope Records
Mac Miller: "I haven't even heard it. Sike, I've heard most of it. Incredible. It's really good. I'm not saying shit about it because it's not my album. All I'm saying is Q put together an incredible album. It's the best album to come out on TDE ever."
