Mac Miller treated a small crowd in New York City to a listening event that mirrored a night at the movies.

Just last night, an unassuming Mac Miller and the Rostrum Records team invited a few fine folks out to a small movie theater in the West Village. Complimentary candy, pizza, beverages, and popcorn were on deck as they gave us the full “movie night with friends”
experience.

A mild-mannered Mac Miller made his way down the right isle steps as we munched away at peanut M & M’s and Twizzlers, as he touched the mic someone took a loud sip and the sound echoed behind me, press play. Mac grabbed the mic and apologized for there being no alcohol for the audience. In part, he was glad because he wanted people to really sit back and experience something, instead of hearing a few beats over a drunken binge at an open bar. It’s admirable to say the least, just last week J. Cole was the subject to a theater style listening event as well. Sharing a story and cohesively explaining the concept of his album as listeners bumped the album on headphones.

“Yeezy is Yeezus”, says Mac Miller as he speaks on dropping his album in 5 days and competing with the likes of Kanye on June 18th. With a smile on his face, the enthusiasm he had seeped out but he showed reserve as he called for the lights to dim and the film to play. In what was part Discovery Channel special and part listening event, the film depicted a turtle’s journey form birth to the tumultuous road that lies ahead at sea. Each track served as a soliloquy for the young turtle’s voyage, avoiding the crabs at sea as opposed to the crabs in real life. Throughout the the film, you can see the turtle battling, pushing forward as it is genetically predisposed to. You can say that Mac Miller’s sophomore album was all about growth, the troublesome, exhausting, yet rewarding process of making a cohesive album from beginning to end was projected as a metaphor in the film.

In attendance was Statik Selektah and Action Bronson, there to show support for Mac. The melodic beats surfaced one after another like waves crashing on the shore. After Bronson’s verse played and their song drew to a close, in true Bronson fashion he let out a “Yeah it’s me, I’m here”, well received by the audience. Certain scenes in the film seemed to strike a chord with the crowd, how a person or a creature goes from the hunted to the hunter, how rough the artist’s path is to success and self-content. Conceptually, this experiment was well thought out and well curated. Mac stuck to a theme of watching movies with no sound, looking at an image or a sequence of events just as they are, with no script or bias. Mac Miller has definitely matured through this project as the turtle in the film had, hitting a point of no return.

Mac hit us with the bonus tracks to conclude the evening. Goosebumpz produced by Diplo, O.K. featuring Tyler, The Creator, and Claymation featuring long time friend Vinny Radio. Mac let us know that Claymation was the seed for Watching Movies with the Sound Off. Vinny Radio and Mac Miller recorded the song on their studio bus after watching the movie Beetlejuice. Again, it seems like Mac’s thoughts and his artistic endeavor allowed everything to come full circle.

June 18th, Watching Movies with the Sound Off.

Virgilio Mendez
@REGULARGUYV