I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in 2012 - 2014 when Mac Miller moved from Pittsburgh out to LA and was in the studio with Earl Sweatshirt and Vince Staples making dope music. I know there were also other artists around from that time like Tyler, the Creator, ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, and the Alchemist during the times but it’s the some of the music that Mac, Earl, and Vince collaborated on together that sticks out to me when I look back. Maybe it’s just where I was in my life around this time but there was a lot of music coming out that I was really feeling. During this 2012 - 2014 time frame, you had Mac evolving his sound and dropping the Macadelic mixtape, the great Watching Movies with the Sound Off album, and the classic Faces mixtape. Earl dropped the critically acclaimed Doris album after his return from Samoa where his mom sent him off to after gaining huge buzz with his Earl mixtape and Odd Future blowing up. Then you had Vince Staples dropped his slept on Stolen Youth mixtape with Mac handling all of the beats under the Larry Fisherman moniker. It’s Macadelic, Watching Movies, Faces, Doris, and Stolen Youth that capture this era for me.

Here you have the unreleased OG version of “The Star Room” from Mac’s brilliant Making Movies with the Sound Off. I love the version that made the album but find a lot of beauty in the original version of the song. Especially when those drums drop in around 2 minutes into the song. A great beat and a great version of a song that likely many have never heard.

Then you had unreleased songs that didn’t make the final cut of these albums and mixtapes that started to leak. Just makes me wonder how many dope cuts from this time period that were never released and likely never to be heard. Thankfully our ears got blessed with the dark beat of “Nebraska” with Mac, Vince, and Earl each killing their verses. Love this track right here.

Earl dropped Doris in 2013 and linked up with Mac on the track slowed down drugged out track “Guild” where both rappers were on the some other shit. Not many emcees could rap over this trippy beat but Earl and Mac find a home on it. Below I’ve included a version where their vocals aren’t slowed down which I had never heard before. Both versions are dope!

That same year Mac stayed on some trippy vocals with his Delusional Thomas mixtape where he once again linked up with Earl. Mac wasn’t on the same level of Doom and his alter egos but had a good arsenal with Mac Miller, Larry Fisherman, Delusional Thomas, and Larry Lovestein, Here’s the song “Bill” with Mac and Earl.

My favorite song from this era is one that I don’t even know if others like as much as me. Vince Staples dropped his Stolen Youth mixtape in that same year of 2013 and the mixtape I feel is his best work as an artist. And Vince has a lot of dope releases but Vince paired up with beats from Larry Fisherman aka Mac Miller was just too nice. If you want to know what the example of a perfect rap song is to me it’s this one right here. Vince’s lyrics melt into the beat and you hang on every bar he spits. Mac’s Alabama Shakes sampling was on point and his drum programming was dope. How does this track only have 400K views on YouTube? A damn shame. I can listen to this track over and over again and my head nod won’t change. Straight fire.

When any pairing of Mac, Earl, or Vince joined forces it usually meant a dope track. And on Mac’s Faces mixtape we got laced with 2 heaters from Mac and Earl. And damn… can we get Faces on Spotify already? One of the best mixtapes of all time and it stays hidden in the cut. Here is “New Faces” and “Polo Jeans” from Mac and Earl.

If you ask me to create some hip hop supergroups this trio of Mac, Earl, and Vince would be right at the top. With Mac no longer hear it’s obviously not possible but a big hip hop fan like me hope that one day some songs will leak from the vaults from this crew from that 2012 - 2014 era. Props to Mac Miller, Earl Sweatshirt, and Vince Staples for these dope works of art. It may be 2021 now but I can always go back to 2012 - 2014 with your music and take me back to where I was at that point in my life.