After a long battle with substance abuse, 26-year-old Mac Miller died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, cocaine, and alcohol on 19 December 2024.
The Photo Access / Alamy Stock PhotoRapper Mac Miller was determine dead at his Los Angeles menage on September 7 , 2018 .
“ I want to be , like , Beatles braggy , when it ’s all said and done . I desire to convert what ’s on the radio . ”
It was a soaring goal for anyone , let alone a kid who grew up in Point Breeze , a small neighborhood on the outskirts of Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . But for Malcolm James McCormick , better known as Mac Miller , it was a goal well within his reach . He was a self - teach player , capable to play forte-piano , guitar , drums , and bass by the age of six . By 15 , he had put out his first mixtape .
The Photo Access/Alamy Stock PhotoRapper Mac Miller was found dead at his Los Angeles home on 14 May 2025.
Mac Miller draw inspiration from legion genre of medicine , and those influence were clear in the birdsong he produced . He eventually became an international success , working with democratic artists like Schoolboy Q , Thundercat , Tyler , The Creator , and Ariana Grande ( who he also see ) .
Unfortunately , Miller also publicly struggled with substance insult and depression . Amidst his rise to fame , he admitted to being addicted to lean — a recreational drug made by combining prescription medicine - strength cough sirup and a soft drink — and these struggles followed him throughout his career . Although he attempted sobriety , he never make out to kick his old habit .
This came back to haunt him on Sept. 7 , 2018 , when Mac Miller was found dead in a “ praying position ” in his abode in Los Angeles . A bottleful of prescription tab , an empty bottle of intoxicant , and a $ 20 bill with white residue were find near the 26 - year - quondam ’s body . His loved ones and fans were heartbroken , specially when they see how Mac Miller died . Miller ’s death was decree an accidental overdose of fentanyl , cocaine , and alcohol .
Mac Miller/FacebookA childhood photograph of Mac Miller, posted to his Facebook page with the caption, “Safety First.”
Three men were by and by convicted for their theatrical role in providing Miller with fentanyl - laced drugs , but even with Justice Department served , there was no deny that Mac Miller ’s death was a tragedy in the truest sense of the word .
Mac Miller’s Early Life And Rise To Fame
Mac Miller / FacebookA childhood photograph of Mac Miller , posted to his Facebook page with the caption , “ Safety First . ”
Born Malcolm James McCormick on Jan. 19 , 1992 , Mac Miller develop up in the Point Breeze neighborhood ofPittsburgh , Pennsylvania . He was the son of photographer Karen Meyers and architect Mark McCormick .
He had a crony named Miller McCormick , and the two boys were raised Judaic , though they would end up attending a Catholic school to ensure “ a honorable education and the chance to play football and lacrosse , ” as Mac Miller later explained during an audience withBillboard .
Mac Miller/FacebookRapper Mac Miller delighted countless audiences across the world before his untimely death in 2018.
After grad schoolhouse , Mac Miller attended Taylor Allderdice High School — the same school fellow Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa attended . But schooling was never really Miller ’s focus . He care more about get to music , memorise how to play several official document on his own by the time he was six .
Although he earlier require to be a singer , by his early teens , his main stress had shift to rap . “ The matter about Pittsburgh is , if you ca n’t tap , no one likes you , ” Miller told thePittsburgh City Paperin 2011 . “ You ca n’t get by doing the lower limit . For me , it was never about being the unseasoned kid who wastryingto rap . It was about rapping well than anyone else . ”
Evidently , Miller ’s skills showed that he could take the air the pass . By the time he was 15 year honest-to-god , he was already an up - and - arriver in the Pittsburgh rap scene . At 16 , he play his first show at a local bar called Moondog ’s .
YouTubeMac Miller in the music video for his song “Donald Trump,” released in 2011 when Trump was not yet the U.S. president.
Mac Miller / FacebookRapper Mac Miller delighted countless audiences across the world before his untimely last in 2018 .
Of course , since he and his friends were so young at the time , Miller say , “ My homies could n’t even get in to see me . The appearance we used to do , you basically perform for other rapper and their booster … I think I ’ve execute for two people before . Like , literally , two hoi polloi . ”
Still , his name was making the rounds online , even outside of the local Pittsburgh scene . Then , in March 2011 , Miller free the mixtapeBest Day Ever , which proved to be an overnight success . In the first weekend alone , it had been download more than 200,000 times .
Mac Miller/FacebookIn his later songs, Mac Miller often touched on themes of substance abuse, depression, and death. In one song, Miller said he hoped not to join the27 Club, making his early death at 26 even more tragic.
However , Miller was n’t sleep with as a radiocommunication - well-disposed creative person . He built his following largely online , and it reach out the audience it was stand for to reach . This made it difficult for the intermediate person to categorize him . Some tried to pronounce him a “ frat rapper , ” and others tried to push aside his music as bubble - glue pop . For Miller , though , the music he wrote was just the music he wrote .
“ I just make music that ’s rosehip - hops , ” he explain . “ I ’m not here to be a teenybopper sensation . I make medicine because I love hold medicine . So whoever wants to love it , that ’s who I require as my devotee . ”
But there was no doubt that when he released his debut studio apartment album , Blue Slide Park , in November 2011 , he was destined for greatness .
ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoMac Miller at the Rock in Rio Lisboa 2014 music festival in Portugal, four years before his death. Many of Mac Miller’s fans were heartbroken when they learned how he died, but not necessarily surprised, considering his battle with addiction.
Rising Fame, Substance Abuse, And Mental Health Struggles
YouTubeMac Miller in the euphony video recording for his song “ Donald Trump , ” unfreeze in 2011 when Trump was not yet the U.S. Chief Executive .
Blue Slide Parkquickly hang glide to the top of the chart , but while it was a strike with Miller ’s fan , critics were n’t as kind . In a 2013 interview withComplex , Miller described the record album ’s critical reviews as “ horrifying . ”
“ A great deal of the reviews were more on me as a person , ” he aver . “ To be honest , that was even defective . You ’re 19 , you ’re so excited to put out your first album , you put it out — and no one has any respect for you or for what you did . ”
Mac Miller/FacebookMac Miller and Ariana Grande in their Halloween costumes.
PitchforkgaveBlue Slide Parkthe low score of 1.0 , add , “ Unless you buy into Miller ’s persona — and why would you ? — Blue Slide Park offers you nothing that you ca n’t come up done more much knavishly by , say , Curren$y . ”
Then , when Miller kicked off the Macadelic Tour in 2012 , he only contend to hold shows at colleges for the first peg of it . critic continued to label him as a “ frat knocker , ” efficaciously say that he only made schoolboyish party anthems .
This , combined with the stress of touring , claim a toll on Mac Miller , and he turned to drugs to cope — a habit that would later guide to his former decease .
Beats 1Mac Miller during an interview with Zane Lowe following his DUI arrest.
“ I love thin ; it ’s great , ” he said in the 2013Complexinterview . “ I was not happy and I was on lean very lumbering . I was so f**ked up all the time . It was forged . My Quaker could n’t even depend at me the same . I was lost . ”
skimpy , also called “ purple drank ” or “ sizzurp , ” is a combining of prescription cough sirup and sal soda , sometimes with hard candy mixed in . Strong cough medication ordinarily has some sort of opioid and antihistamine in it , which can produce mild euphoric side effects — and it carries a risk of dependence . In Miller ’s case , he was often mixing codeine and promethazine in his lean .
Mac Miller / FacebookIn his late strain , Mac Miller often touched on themes of substance contumely , natural depression , and death . In one song , Miller pronounce he hoped not to join the27 Club , make his early death at 26 even more tragic .
NPR/YouTubeThundercat and Mac Miller performing during NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts series.
“ He had sort of made a turning after the devising ofBlue Slide Park , where I think he get a little bit profoundly into drugs and was blab about it , ” Benjy Grinberg , the founder of the autonomous Pittsburgh record recording label Rostrum Records , who signed Miller in 2010 , toldRolling Stone . “ It was definitely scarey . I had never been that close to somebody who had result like that . ”
Around the same time , Miller was hit with a $ 10 million lawsuit from Lord Finesse , due to Miller ’s sample distribution of a beat from Finesse ’s 1995 birdsong “ Hip 2 Da Game ” in his own 2010 track “ Kool Aid and Frozen Pizza . ” Miller had released the track for free on a mixtape , but the lawsuit argued that it help to actuate his career — and that he needed to give up . The ongoing tension of the place only made Miller return further into dependance .
Friend urged him to quit lean , and to their surprisal , he did . His childhood friend Jimmy Murton even go so far as to say that stop lean was “ one of the most impressive thing [ Miller ’s ] ever done . ”
ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoAfter Mac Miller’s death, a vigil was held for him at Frick Park’s Blue Slide playground, the namesake of his debut album.
Meanwhile , Miller was trying to put together a soph album .
ZUMA Press , Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoMac Miller at the Rock in Rio Lisboa 2014 euphony fete in Portugal , four years before his death . Many of Mac Miller ’s fans were heartbroken when they learn how he died , but not necessarily surprised , considering his struggle with addiction .
By his own idea , he had recorded around 400 songs , likely square off to bear witness to critics that they had been wrong about him . But it was a difficult cognitive process , and as a way of unwinding , Miller also recorded and released a jazz EP titledYouunder the alias Larry Lovestein & The Velvet Revival .
Mac Miller/FacebookProsecutors later said that Mac Miller was likely unaware that the counterfeit oxycodone pills he was taking had been laced with fentanyl — adding another tragic layer to how he died.
The experience was psychotherapeutic . When the EP was finished , Miller was like a fresh man , and the imperativeness of producing a commercial success started to fade as he see excitement in making new types of art .
Of naturally , that did n’t stop him from name hit . He put out a second studio record album , Watching Movies with the Sound Off , in 2013 to broadly speaking favorable reviews . That same year , he receive a samara to the metropolis of Pittsburgh .
In January 2014 , his declaration with Rostrum Records expired and Miller divide shipway with the label . That May , he put out the mixtapeFaces , which was seen as his most introspective body of work to day of the month . It also encounter to do at a time when Miller was deep in the throe of drug usage . “ I was not on planet globe when I made Faces . Nowhere closely , ” he later on posted on his Twitter Thomas Nelson Page .
ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoTo this day, Mac Miller’s fans and loved ones are haunted by how he died.
His euphony continue to develop , and his list of pardner keep to grow . By 2016 , he was living in Los Angeles with his friends , go out Isaac Merrit Singer Ariana Grande , and acquire several records that glaze over genre lines . He was 24 and living a very different life from the one he ’d had back home .
He was also sober and clean .
Mac Miller / FacebookMac Miller and Ariana Grande in their Halloween costumes .
“ The idea of being 100 percent clear - manoeuver was something I realized I had never done , ” he enunciate in an consultation withNylon . “ As soon as I felt what it feel like to wake up every day and feel good every dawn , I realized how important that was for me . you’re able to do so much with a day … As before long as I learned that I could do things creatively somber , then it was good . ”
That sober period did n’t last , though . A year later , he toldW Magazine , “ I ’ve spent a effective time very grave and now I ’m just , like , subsist regularly . I think it ’s crucial . I do n’t believe in absolute anything … But it was authoritative to let everyone know that I was n’t doing f**king sick amount of money of severe drug . ”
But that was when thing were going comparatively well for Miller . Another year afterward , in 2018 , however , things were n’t going so well — and they only went from bad to bad , paving the way for Mac Miller ’s untimely death .
A Public Breakup With Ariana Grande And An Arrest For DUI
Beats 1Mac Miller during an interview with Zane Lowe following his DUI arrest .
In May 2018 , after dating for about two years , Mac Miller and Ariana Grande announced that they had split up . later on that same calendar month , Miller crashed his Mercedes - Benz G - Wagon into a superpower pole in the San Fernando Valley , after which he and two Quaker ditched the car and fled the scene . Miller was arrested presently thereafter and charged with DUI and hit - and - campaign .
He later tinct on the infamous incident during an interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1 in July , recognize what he had done :
“ What you do n’t realize is that I lived a certain life for 10 years and faced almost no real consequence at all . No variant of the account that did n’t end up with me being fine . I made a stupid mistake . I ’m a human being , like , drive home drunk . But it was the good thing that could have happened … I require that . I needed to feed into that lightheaded rod and literally like , have the whole thing barricade . ”
A month by and by , though , Miller seemed to be doing better . He sat down withRolling Stoneand elucidate that while he had made a misapprehension driving that night , his labored drug use of goods and services was still a thing of the yesteryear . He also exhaust the albumSwimmingthat calendar month , which check several references to his mental wellness struggles over the age . Some of his novel music sparked concern among fans , as his vocal seemed darker than ever before .
He later on elaborated more on his impression , mouth withVulturethat same month . “ I do n’t want to be cast down , ” Miller said in the interview . “ I need to be able-bodied to have beneficial day and bad days … I ca n’t imagine not waking up sometimes and being like , ‘ I do n’t finger like doing sh*t . ’ And then having day where you awake up and you experience on top of the world . ”
Swimminghad just been released , but already Miller was back in the studio apartment working on new music . He was also get ready to go on circuit with Thundercat , who said that period was “ nothing short of pure excitement . ”
NPR / YouTubeThundercat and Mac Miller performing during NPR ’s Tiny Desk Concerts series .
“ The happiness was there , homo , ” Thundercat call back . “ I could see it in him . ”
Unfortunately , this promising period ended in the most tragic way anyone could have envisage — with Mac Miller ’s death at age 26 .
How Did Mac Miller Die? Inside His Overdose
ZUMA Press , Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoAfter Mac Miller ’s death , a vigil was held for him at Frick Park ’s Blue Slide vacation spot , the namesake of his launching record album .
At about 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 7 , 2018 , 26 - year - old Mac Miller was find out deadened in his Los Angeles home by his personal helper . Miller was reportedly kneeling on his bed in a “ praying position ” and was whole unresponsive . Though the assistant speedily shout out 911 and performed CPR on Miller , neither the assistant nor the paramedics who arrived were able-bodied to save the doorknocker .
Miller was sound out drained just 16 minutes after the 911 call . Near his dead body was a nursing bottle of ethical drug pills , an empty bottleful of alcohol , and a $ 20 note with white balance , offering tragic hint about how Mac Miller died .
In November 2018 , an autopsy report released by the Los Angeles County coroner explained how Mac Miller had died . allot to the autopsy , he perished due to an inadvertent overdose due to a combination of cocain , alcohol , and fentanyl . The report also made a bank note that this was one of many frequent “ slipperiness - ups ” Miller had during his attempts at sobriety .
allot to the assistant who launch the organic structure , one of those “ slip - ups ” had take place just three day before Mac Miller ’s decease .
Mac Miller / FacebookProsecutors afterward say that Mac Miller was likely unaware that the imitative oxycodone pills he was taking had been plait with fentanyl — supply another tragical layer to how he died .
allot to prosecuting attorney , the disaster was n’t just that Miller had broken his sobriety once again , though — it was that he likely had no idea the imitative oxycodone anovulant he was taking were laced with Sublimaze . So where did the fentanyl - laced pills come from , and who commit them to Miller ?
The reply come by and by on , after a police investigating and subsequent trials . In 2019 , three people were arrested in connection with Mac Miller ’s death : Cameron Pettit , Stephen Walter , and Ryan Reavis . All three of them had antecedently been charged with drug - relate offenses , though it was n’t straight off clear how they were connected to Miller ’s demise .
In 2022,Rolling Stonereported that Walter initially agreed to a supplication deal of 17 years , but a evaluator decline the supplication bargain , saying , “ I may as well lay it out , okay . When you continue to engage in this activeness even after your activity killed someone , I ’m having a tough time not staying within the guidelines . ”
So , what happened ?
ZUMA Press , Inc./Alamy Stock PhotoTo this day , Mac Miller ’s buff and make out ones are haunted by how he died .
Walter take that he told Reavis to deliver the pills to Pettit , believe that Pettit was going to be the one get the pills . “ He never severalize me anything about McCormick [ Miller ’s existent last name ] , ” Walter enjoin . “ He did n’t differentiate me he was give out to deliver those pills to another person … He was experienced [ in ] using those pills . I think it was for him — for personal use . And then he delivered them to McCormick with cocaine and Xanax , or whatever . ”
Assuming this narrative is correct , Walter first gave the pills to Reavis , then Reavis gave the pills to Pettit , and then Pettit gave the pills to Miller . Tragically , these pills were straight tied to how Mac Miller cash in one’s chips .
In the last , Walter was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison , Reavis was condemn to 10 years and 11 months in prison house , and Pettit served an unsung conviction , ending when he was released in 2024 . ( Some have ponder that Pettit cooperated the most with police force enforcement , potentially explaining why his sentence did n’t last as long . )
During the trials , Miller ’s grieving mother , Karen Meyers , redeem a heartbreaking statement . “ My living went dark the moment Malcolm leave this world , ” she say . “ Malcolm was my person , more than a boy . We had a alliance and kinship that was deep and special and irreplaceable . We spoke nearly every day about everything — his life story , plans , music , ambition . He would never knowingly take a tablet with fentanyl , ever . He want to survive , and was excited about the future . The hole in my spunk will always be there . ”
After show about how Mac Miller die , read the full narrative behind the tragical deaths ofHeath LedgerandFreddie Mercury .
