Miller’s Doom-esque witticisms are dispensed here over production that matches Wiz Khalifa’s 2012 cloud rap gambit O.N.I.F.C. There’s still a lemon here and there (“I spit the shit that leave a diaper brown” on the otherwise promising lead single “S.D.S.” and “Gees,” with its chorus of “Suck my dick before I slap you with it”), but the Mac Miller of Watching Movies, who feels comfortable trading verses with rap nerd favorites like Jay Electronica and Action Bronson, largely succeeds in distancing himself from the guy peddling kiddie-pool deep rhymes about drinking 40s in front of the police just two years prior. In their place we get a batch of songs that break the surface with snarling, self-deprecating wit (“I don’t act hard/Still read Babar” from opener “The Star Room”) and musings on mortality (“Probably be dead soon inhaling cigarette fumes” on “Avian”) and drugs (“That fetanyl, it numbs me/.Turns you into a junkie” on “Someone Like You”). Gone are the undercooked shaggy dog stories of Blue Slide Park and mixtapes like Best Day Ever. Watching Movies With the Sound Off reintroduces Mac Miller as a druggy philosopher on the mic and a left field talent behind the boards. It’s the wide-eyed kid brother of Blue Slide Park home from college extolling the virtues of meditation and salvia. Watching Movies With the Sound Off is steeped in the pathos of Mac’s bad year and the musical influence, both direct and indirect, of his new rap friends. Miller kicked the promethazine habit, settled with Finesse out of court (although Trump still taunts him), and then summarily ditched his native Pittsburgh for Los Angeles, where he’s been palling around with members of Odd Future and Kendrick Lamar’s Top Dawg Entertainment collective ever since. Miller also ran into threats of litigation from hip-hop producer Lord Finesse, who says his production was used without permission on a popular mixtape cut, and Donald Trump, who came calling after a 2011 single named after him racked up millions of views on YouTube. Beset by detractors and disillusioned with his career path (and the ever-present “frat-rap” association), he turned to promethazine to cope during 2012’s rigorous Macadelic Tour. The album featured contributions from guests like Kendrick Lamar, Cee Lo Green, Robert Glasper, and Anderson.Things got knotty for Mac just as quickly as he took off, though. Just a year after GO:OD AM ascended to the Top Five of the Billboard 200 and Rap charts, Miller returned with his fourth LP, The Divine Feminine. GO:OD AM followed in 2015 with Lil B, Chief Keef, and Miguel on the album's guest list. and launched his own imprint, REMember Music, under the major label. The more experimental effort Watching Movies with the Sound Off followed in 2013, with left-field hip-hop names like Action Bronson, Earl Sweatshirt, and Flying Lotus lending a hand. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Rostrum released his debut EP, On and on and Beyond, and his debut album, Blue Slide Park, in 2011. mixtape became his breakthrough when it was released in August of 2010, earning plenty of attention from hip-hop blogs and landing Miller a recording contract with Rostrum Records. Born Malcolm McCormick, Miller first used the alias 'Easy Mac,' a name referenced on his debut mixtape, 2007's But My Mackin' Ain't Easy. Coming on the scene with a throwback style that betrayed his years, Pittsburgh-based rapper Mac Miller had just turned 18 when he spent 2010 making his name through mixtapes and video-sharing websites.
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