How often do we recognize the murky waters in which we swim? How often do we stop to take in the oblivion that surrounds us? In Oblivion, yeah yeah. These questions are in vain to be answered. Got stuck in Oblivion, yeah yeah. Yet some people find magnificent ways to explore these questions through art and music. The late Malcolm McCormick (famously known as Mac Miller) passed away, leaving behind a legacy of hope, illusions, brilliance, and strife.
Miller grew up as a young kid in Pittsburgh. Discovering hip-hop and releasing his first mixtape at 14, Miller taught himself music. He was a masterful lyricist and an embodiment of pure hip-hop and rap. A lot of people are concerned with the direction the hip-hop genre is heading. For those people, the death of Miller is considered a tremendous collective loss, as it should be.
Poetically and tragically, Miller died in the same murky waters that he explored. The same murky waters he lived in. The same oblivion he found himself lost in. This is the world we live in A world consumed by a darkness—an epidemic. The one thing my grandmother and Miller had in common was the cloud that followed them. My grandmother worked three jobs and mothered three children while going to nursing school—and now her life drips out of a bottle. The true tragedy in the death of Miller is the loss of someone who contributed greatly to society. Not often do we find free thinkers that are brilliance personified. Yet this is our oblivion. The opioid crisis has touched everyone in some way.
Addiction, in general, has an even further reach. So, it is important to dissect that word. Addiction is not, as some call it, a disease. Nor is it a choice. It is a part of you. It attaches itself and becomes a parasite on your well-being and your happiness. And here we find Miller. Lost, despite getting somewhere. What kind of culture have we created where no one can ask for help? Some would rather take their lives, but what of the rest? Naturally, as humans, we look for ways to save ourselves. Sometimes we find ways that trap us—permanent potions. Miller found himself trapped within his own mind trying to fight his way out with the wrong weapons. His music is a reflection of this turmoil: “What if I don’t need it? There’s something about it and it just freaks me out.” How many more of our thinkers are we going to let slip away from us? It is time to take a serious look into the opioid epidemic.
The conditions our society creates direct us towards unhealthy coping mechanisms. In a way, this is all that drugs are. Society basically creates an idea and then everyone tries to fit in that idea. How society decides what beauty is, displays it, and normalizes hating anything outside its definition of beauty, leaves us consuming this knowledge. Society is what we are taught. It has a massive impact on an individual. Therefore, when society creates an ideology of happiness, success, and the meaning of life, it inadvertently creates conflicts. Not everyone can exist the same way. As of right now, it is considered too shameful to seek help for mental illness or anything that goes against the ideas we’ve been taught. People would rather turn to lethal outlets. They would rather spiral. Get stuck in Oblivion, yeah yeah.
So if we were to truly question why Miller was taken too soon, we would find answers we may not like … murky waters. Perhaps we are the problem with what we normalize and cast out. Far and wide, we dismiss one another. The first step to change is focusing on yourself and then moving forward from there. Only after you are impenetrable can you begin to change the external. The War on Drugs has greatly influenced the opioid epidemic, but I cannot write on how you may solve the War on Drugs. However, you can change your ideological choices. We have that choice. Miller would agree that we have to do what we can to be better so we can try and find our way out of these waters. No one wants to get stuck in oblivion (yeah yeah). Rest in peace, Malcolm McCormick (1992–2018).