He may be young, but this isn’t the Pittsburgh native’s first time at the rodeo.

102k. I’m still out here.

— Mac. (@MacMiller) June 25, 2013

Well, Mr. Miller, this appears to be true.

Despite finishing third in a race of pure thoroughbreds on June 18th, as Kanye & J. Cole both sold no lower than 300,000 copies of their albums during the week of June 18th-June 24th, Mac Miller received possibly the most universal critical acclaim for his second LP, which perfectly coincided with his Space Migration Tour, which featured the likes of Chance The Rapper, The Internet, Earl Sweatshirt, and Mac’s own surprise guests performing a slew of crowd favorites and hip-hop head pleasers. In New York City, on the night of July 16th, however, Mac had a different agenda in mind than just having fun. His goal was to leave a mark on the notoriously tough crowd, making sure his first week sales numbers weren’t the only indicator of his place in hip-hop.

After impressive sets from both The Internet and Chance The Rapper–who brought out Ab-Soul to perform “Smoke Again”, and wowed a large majority of the sold out Hammerstein Ballroom despite having severe microphone issues–Mac Miller took the stage. Short, wily, tattooed up to the wazoo and sporting a partially fastened pair of overalls and completely barefoot, the Rostrum Records prince and Most Dope headmaster held court as only he could. Running effortlessly through memorable moments from both Macadelic (“Lucky Ass B*tch” and the Lil Wayne-assisted “The Question”) and his breakthrough project, K.I.D.S. (“Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza”, “Nikes On My Feet”), the most impressive part of Miller’s performance wasn’t his stage presence or his ability to keep pace with a fervish, young New York crowd, but his confidence in opening a sold out show with mainly old material, most of which recently celebrated its 2nd or 3rd birthday.

The perfect word to describe the night of July 16th would be climactic. As tweets rolled in from hip-hop blog mainstays about J. Cole, Ed Sheeran and Chance The Rapper’s goings on backstage, Mac had a few special guests of his own, as before long ScHoolboy Q strolled out to perform Watching Movies With The Sound Off‘s latest single, “Gees”, evidently a crowd favorite. Ab-Soul was the next of Mac’s friends to come out and share the workload, as “Soul!”, erupted from the venues speakers, making way for one of the more energetic performances of the night, “Matches”, not long before Earl Sweatshirt trotted out and sang his verse to “I’m Not Real” with the crowd.

While after 45 minutes, Miller had performed enough material to make even the most stubborn of hip-hop purists a believer in the young rebel’s talents, Mac had other plans. Changing into a much more “traditional” outfit, sporting a guitar and a scintillating live band as support, phase to of The Space Migration Tour’s headlining act was in full effect. Pouring vivid emotion, passion, and splendid raw talent into simultaneously playing the guitar and entertaining the crowd, Hammerstein was treated to live renditions of “Bird Call”, and “Avian”, and emotionally charged performances of “Objects In The Mirror” and “Remember Me”. Despite the lengthy set, the crowd didn’t miss a beat, as Mac became one with them, chanting along with them, encouraging them to smoke and sing their hearts out as he did what he did best.

“Donald Trump”, the controversial-for-all-the-wrong-reasons song that helped Mac become a national star 2 years ago, was Miller’s choice culmination song. Showing the same energy he had when he first began performing it two years ago, Mac traded the live band for the serato and stereos, and begged the crowd to bring the house down one final time with him, which they did, despite being packed in the venue on foot for the better part of 2 hours. If one had to be critical and draw something concrete from this show it was this: Whether or not the presence of rap’s youthful stars (Ab-Soul, ScHoolboy Q, J. Cole, Earl Sweatshirt), or his mere ability to sell out some of New York’s most storied venues wasn’t enough to impress, witnesses of this show can be sure that Mac Miller, in his bubbly, frequently intoxicated and quirky glory, will be “out here” as long as he wants to be, and he doesn’t need a major label, or a Drake feature to do so.

-Khari Nixon (@KingVanGogh)