Rapper Mac Miller (real name Malcolm McCormick) has died of an apparent overdose, according to TMZ. He was found on Friday around noon at his San Fernando Valley home (it does not say by whom). The rapper, known for hits like “Donald Trump” and “The Way,” was 26.
In a profile on Vulture that was published on Thursday, he spoke about his anxieties, pressures from sustaining a career at such a young age, and his drug use, which often provided fodder for his music. “I have a tendency to kinda brood about stuff and cook in it,” he said. “I’ll wake up and just sit here and think about it for hours.”
“I used to rap super openly about really dark shit because that’s what I was experiencing at the time,” he added. “That’s fine, that’s good, that’s life. It should be all the emotions.”
Ariana Grande has already been swept up in the story since Grande dated Miller prior to her current relationship with Pete Davidson. The singer disabled comments on her Instagram as it was flooded with abuse. When a fan criticized Grande in May for leaving a person who had substance-abuse issues, she had a heated response: “How absurd that you minimize female self-respect and self-worth by saying someone should stay in a toxic relationship because he wrote an album about them,” she wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “Of course I didn’t share about how hard or scary it was while it was happening but it was. I will continue to pray from the bottom of my heart that he figures it all out and that any other woman in this position does as well.” The fan apologized.
After he crashed his car and was arrested for being two times over the legal limit of alcohol in May, she tweeted, “Pls take care of yourself.”