If I wanted to go to an area surrounded by white teens I would have gone to my high school reunion. Unlike my high school, Mac Miller put on for an hour of nonstop ultra teenage swag which white rich kids from North Toronto never exuded. Similarities between North Toronto C.I. white boys and Miller?—they love their Canadian weed.
The night started off with a longer than expected wait in the blistering heat wave Toronto faced on that mid-July night. We knew the show was sold out but from when doors were supposed to open (8:00pm), it took us one hour to get in and that’s considering the fact that we joined the line at seven. Although the wait was unexpected it still went by smoothly thanks to the atmosphere drunk/high Miller fans made. A minivan drove by that noticed this crowd waiting to get into the Kool Haus and when the passenger asked a scalper what this line was waiting for, the scalper spoke with simple truth: “It’s for Mac Miller, a white rapper, he does white people rap”.
I don’t know if there is a prejudice against white people rapping or if that racial difference created segregation within a genre of music but by looking at the fans it was true; there was not a black kid in sight. With that said, inevitably this crowd had some drunk douche-bag bros.
Inside the Kool Haus the crowd was getting rowdy waiting for the show to start while a female DJ played popular tunes. Midori, Michelle and I found a sweet spot near the stage off-side and within minutes others did too. As soon as TFHouse kicked off his set of songs, the douche bags came out to play. These big boys decided it was “kewl” to push, shove and almost trample smaller teens (in my area this was mainly teen girls). I swear I almost punched one of the kids; I couldn’t take his bullshit any longer.
Alas, by the time Mac Miller came onstage, all was well! Security had set these asses straight.
When you see Mac Miller perform, or even listen to his songs, you forget how young the kid is. He’s my age and he’s got full control of the audience. “Im Justin Bieber meets Jadakiss,” raps Miller in Get ‘Em Up. He’s a performer and better yet, he’s a leader. He started the whole “thumbs up” movement focusing on celebrating the positives of our young lives. His youth makes him that much more relatable to his audience. He could be a friend of mine, he could be a classmate, or he could have been an ex-boyfriend. But he’s not, he’s Mac Miller and he’s jumping around to his songs onstage showing this audience a good fucking time.
Miller takes a moment from the show to say he’s not always a party boy, he raps about other things too. This is where the vibe of the show tones down a bit as Miller dedicates the song “Poppy” to his late grandfather. A very touching speech about a time in his life when he decided he was going to pursue his dream; a time when he wanted to become the rapper from Pittsburgh we know as Mac Miller. Miller admits his family wasn’t 100% supportive; everyone except his grandfather of course. His grandfather supported him all the way but as would happen in a TV movie, Miller’s old man passed away before he could see his grandson’s success. So he dedicated this song and this moment to him and to anyone someone in the audience lost.
By the end of the show I had gone through mild-beatings, laughs, sweat, tears and I had lost my voice; as the result of a good concert should be.
The kid from Pittsburgh, now an international star, has more great things to come (BLUE SLIDE PARK coming out later this year) with the many-many years in this industry his future holds. On July 16th, 2011 he made Pittsburgh proud, his fans from all over proud and my heart knows that his grandfather is looking down with two proud thumbs up.
