The last 24 hours has been pretty rough for me. I lost my bet on the Falcons/Eagles game last night, I dropped my iced coffee immediately after stepping out of Dunkies this morning, and to top it all off, I just found out that Mac Miller died.

The 26 year old Pittsburgh rapper died of an apparent drug overdose today, and due to his influence on my life—especially as a teenager—I consider him worthy of a memoriam blog.

Mac Miller was a big deal to a lot of people my age, mainly due to his coming of age mixtapes The High Life, K.I.D.S., and Best Day Ever. His laidback style and his fun, sex/drug fueled lyrics earned his songs mandatory spots on any party or blunt cruise playlist back in the day, and he singlehandedly managed to make snapbacks cool again. My Chicago Bulls and Carolina Gamecocks hats—the latter of which hilariously reads “Cocks” in huge letters across the front—continue to collect dust in my room to this day, but you can bet your ass I only bought and wore them when I was 15 because my friends and I all wanted to be like him

The first concert I ever went to was a free Mac Miller show at Government Center back in the summer of 2011. If you ask any 20 something year old from the Greater Boston Area about that concert, they’ll undoubtably agree with me saying that day was a fucking blast. Essentially, it was a sanctioned shitshow where thousands of teenagers were drinking heavily, smoking blunts, and listening to Mac Miller right outside of Boston City Hall. Girls were flashing their tits, people were crowdsurfing, and the sheer number of bottles and punches thrown that day had to be atleast infinity. The show had to be stopped multiple times because the crowd reached riot-like conditions, and to this day it’s one of my favorite memories from highschool.

Here are some videos that captured the chaos of that day, but even they don’t do it complete justice because it was truly a “Had to be there” event.

Another thing that has been troubling to me about Mac’s death has been the news coverage. I’ve seen so many headlines today that referred to Mac Miller as simply Ariana Grande’s ex-boyfriend, and it pissed me the fuck off. Mac Miller was making hits and touring the world while she was still just a minor character on a Nickelodeon show, so I don’t understand how he’s being viewed as just some guy that used to date her. Mac Miller was far more talented than her and clearly was a much more genuine person than her, seeing as she got engaged to Pete Davidson a week after she dumped Mac Miller. I won’t take the wild leap some are taking and say that she caused his death, but her parading around with Pete Davidson (who she more than likely was cheating on Mac Miller with before their breakup) probably didn’t help his depression and drug problems.

Celebrities die everyday, but this is one of the few deaths in recent years that has really hit me. Mac Miller provided my teenage years with great music and memories that I’ll be forever grateful for.

I joke around a lot on here about addiction and whatnot, but it is a serious subject that needs addressing. Losing somebody that’s so young and talented because they took too much of a certain drug that they’d become physically addicted should be Orwellian, but unfortunately opioids are wiping my generation out overnight like a new chemical strain of the Bubonic plague. Looking on the brighter side of things, maybe the recent OD deaths of artists like Mac Miller will shed more much needed light on the problem, but only time will tell if that pans out.

His passing is especially surreal considering he released an album a month ago, which is awesome by the way. That just goes to show that you really are never promised tomorrow, and I don’t care how cliche that sounds. Don’t take tomorrow for granted folks, because it’s anything but

To wrap things up, I’ll simply say this: Rest in peace Malcolm McCormick, and thank you for the countless number of songs and all of the great memories I have attached to them. I listened to K.I.D.S. earlier, and I had myself a lot of smiles and laughs, as well as a few tears. I smiled as I thought back on a lot of great teenage memories that I associate with those songs, and I got sad as it hit me that he’s actually gone. Anybody that can make me feel that much of a contrast of emotions by passing away was clearly a special person, and although nobody truly knows what happens after death, I just hope that Mac is out there Kickin Incredibly Dope Shit somewhere