This past Saturday would have been Mac Miller's 27th birthday and tributes to the late rapper were shared everywhere between family and fans of the "Self Care" music maker. One of the many artists who was inspired by Mac (Token) chatted with XXL about Mac's influence on his career and his latest album, Between Somewhere.
“He inspired me to really be honest—really be honest," Token told the publication. "Some of the stuff he’s saying on Watching Movies With the Sound Off, he’s so utterly honest and it’s like the ugly truth, even if it doesn’t sound right."
"What I respected so much about him is I felt like he could’ve stayed the route he was coming up off, the real poppy surface—not to diss that—but I felt like that wasn’t his goal; fame wasn’t his goal," he added. "Doing creatively what he wanted to do was his goal, and that inspires me ’cause that’s what’s important to me, too.”
As for the upcoming Grammy awards, where Mac is running against Cardi B's Invasion of Privacy, Nipsey Hussle's Victory Lap, Pusha T's Daytona and Travis Scott's Astroworld for Best Rap Album, Token thinks Mac deserves the win.
“I mean my two favorite albums of that [category] are Mac and Travis," he said, choosing Mac's tape as his number one. "The album speaks to a lot of people and you kinda didn’t even realize when it came out. But to see how many people have come out and said how much that album means to them, I think that has really connected with his audience and speaks to them more than the other ones do."
