Mac Miller may be gone, but his legacy lives on and now, fans can find out where it all began. While Mac’s K.I.D.S. mixtape wasn’t his first, it was arguably the most important in exposing the talented, then-teenaged Pittsburgh rapper to a wide audience and starting him on the road to superstardom. Released April 29, 2010, Mac’s fourth mixtape, released under indie label Rostrum Records, broke him to the masses with the tracks “Nikes On My Feet” and “Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza,” as well as a diverse array of old-school hip-hop beats that allowed him to showcase his love for the genre and his deft flow.
Now, K.I.D.S. is officially available for streaming on all DSPs after previously only being available on mixtape sites like DatPiff, where it originally debuted. When it originally released, Mac Miller was only 18 years old and often unfairly categorized as part of the then-prominent “frat rap” movement. K.I.D.S allowed him to break out of that box, as well as endear him to an older generation reluctant to accept so-called “blog rappers” as members of the hip-hop canon with its clever use of beats like Nas’ “The World Is Yours” and Lord Finesse’s “Hip 2 Da Game” and its references to the 1995 cult film Kids.
It was also the subject of controversy as Lord Finesse sued over the above-mentioned sample for $10 million, later settling out-of-court for an undisclosed sum. K.I.D.S. was also the launching pad for Mac’s first tour, on which he sold out every location
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Listen to Mac Miller’s K.I.D.S. mixtape above.
Mac Miller is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.