A rapper rapping about true love, let alone creating a whole album about it, is a rarity. Love is a kind of taboo to the “hard” rap world, and a successful white rapper, especially lately, is another rare sight in the rap world. Both of these rarities come together in the form of Mac Miller’s “The Divine Feminine,” provided all the necessary tools for a very different but pretty awesome album.
To us fans of Mac Miller, we know what his music usually entails: girls, weed, alcohol, partying, more drugs and more girls. His albums and mixtapes are a mix of all these topics either thrown or loosely tied together with no real sense of cohesion. “The Divine Feminine” completely flips the script on us not only because of his new and improved views on women (or a woman), but also because Mac Miller was able to create a concept album, about love, which is something I would have never expected from him.
“The Divine Feminine” can best be described as a rollercoaster of love. Mac Miller takes us through the highs of a passionate love, the lows of losing it and all the twists and turns in between. The intro of the album, “Congratulations” exemplifies that perfectly as Miller reminisces on the fun times of his relationship, over a piano-laced beat that makes one feel eerily nostalgic.
The feeling of nostalgia remains as the album progresses. One of the best tracks on the entire album follows the intro on the Anderson .Paak assisted “Dang.” “Dang” opens up with .Paak crooning about refusing to lose his girl over trivial matters within the chorus, while Miller handles the verses. “Stay” follows a similar pattern as “Dang,” and that is when I noticed the biggest negative of the album: the repetitiveness.
This album told me one surefire thing about his relationship; Mac Miller loves the sex with her. Whether he is rapping about the multitude of positions he likes to put her in or how he prefers her vagina over food, he talks about sex so frequently that it becomes sort of an annoyance. It even gets borderline disgusting at how explicit he gets talking about these acts. Most people know the satisfaction of good sex, I just wish Mac Miller knew it shouldn’t take eight songs to explain it.
Overall, the album is a solid one and will probably go down as Mac Miller’s best yet. He took the concept of love and created an emotional album we haven’t seen since Drake’s “Take Care” nearly five years prior. Mac Miller proved he can be more than just a stoner who loves women and loves to party. “The Divine Feminine” showed an artistic side in Mac Miller most people had no idea he had, and that should be the goal of an artist; to not only push the envelope, but to push yourself. Mac Miller clearly did that.
Grade: B
Verdict: For Mac Miller, this album will definitely go down as one to remember. During a time where concept albums are not really made anymore, he put out a pretty darn good one. The album is already his best commercially, debuting #2 on the Hot 100 and is dedicated to his highest profile girl yet, Ariana Grande. In the bigger scheme of things, this won’t go down as album of the year, but that is nothing to be ashamed of. Mac Miller finally proved his doubters wrong and that alone is almost as good as a gold trophy.
Top Tracks: “Dang,” “Cinderella” and “Planet God Damn”
