Mac Miller passed away in 2018 due to overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and fentanyl. Image Source: Billboard
American rapper and record producer, Mac Miller whose real name was Malcolm McCormick died on September 7th, 2018 at his Studio City home at the age of 26. His death was ruled an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and fentanyl.
In 2007, at the age of 15, the rapper began his career in Pittsburgh's hip hop scene, and in 2010 he acquired a record deal with independent label Rostrum Records, releasing his breakthrough mixtapes K.I.D.S. and Best Day Ever. Mac Miller's debut studio album titled, Blue Slide Park that released in 2011 was the first independently distributed debut album to top the US Billboard 200 since 1995.
It was a known fact that Mac Miller struggled with substance abuse, which was often referenced in his lyrics. His assistant, who called 911 and performed CPR on the rapper until paramedics arrived, found him unresponsive in his Studio City home. The rapper was laid to rest with a Jewish funeral at Homewood Cemetery in his hometown of Pittsburgh. Mac Miller died after an unintentional drug overdose owing to a "mixed drug toxicity" of fentanyl, cocaine, and alcohol, according to the Los Angeles County Coroner's office on November 5, 2018.
In 2011, while on tour in upstate New York, Mac Miller and his buddies were arrested for marijuana possession and spent the night in jail. After smashing into a utility pole and leaving the scene with two passengers, Mac Miller was arrested in May 2018 on allegations of driving under the influence and hit-and-run. Mac Miller confessed when police arrived at his home after obtaining his address from his license plate number. He was apprehended and released on a $15,000 bond. Miller was charged with two counts of driving under the influence for the incident in August 2018. The accusations against Mac Miller were withdrawn because he died before his arraignment.
Recently, an Arizona man, Ryan Michael Reavis has agreed to plead guilty to supplying the dealer who sold the late rapper the drugs on which he overdosed on Wednesday. He is the second man to plead guilty to that same charge in Mac Miller’s death after Stephen Andrew Walter entered his plea last month and agreed to plead guilty for supplying the drugs to the drug dealer of the rapper with counterfeit pharmaceutical pills containing fentanyl.
Ryan Michael Reavis, 38, is anticipated to plead guilty to the federal criminal charge, according to the Justice Department on Wednesday, November 10th, 2021. According to court documents obtained by Billboard, on Sept. 4, 2018, Ryan Michael Reavis followed the orders of fellow co-defendants Stephen Andrew Walter and knowingly distributed counterfeit oxycodone pills to a third co-defendant, Cameron James Pettit, knowing they contained fentanyl "or some other federally controlled substance." Pettit then gave the tablets to 26-year-old rapper Mac Miller, who died three days later in his San Fernando Valley, California, home after an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and fentanyl.
Ryan Michael Reavis could spend up to 20 years in prison and be on supervised release for the rest of his life. Reavis and Walter are likely to enter guilty pleas before U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II in Los Angeles in the coming weeks, while Pettit's case is still ongoing. Prosecutors claim that if not for the fentanyl in the pills given to Mac Miller by Cameron James Pettit, he would not have died from an overdose. Stephen Andrew Walter could face a sentence of 17 to 21 years in jail, as well as a $1 million fine. According to TMZ, detectives arrested Ryan Michael Reavis in 2019 and charged him with possessing a doctor's prescription pad at his residence.
Mac Miller signed with Warner Records in 2014, and the rapper and producer have spoken openly about his battle with addiction. When he smashed his SUV into a light pole while under the influence in 2018, he said the experience 'ought to happen for him to change his view on life. Mac Miller told the Vulture in one of his final interviews, "It just seems exhausting to always be battling something … to always be battling for what you think your image is supposed to be. You're never going to be able to get anything across. It's never going to be the real … No one's going to ever really know me. Do you know what I mean? That's okay. The people that have the best chance of knowing me that would like to would just be by listening to my music. Even friends that I've lost touch with, if they ask how I've been, I'm like, "That's the best way to know how I'm doing."
Ariana Grande last year in her interview with Apple Music's Zane Lowe spoke about how music mattered to her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller. She added, "He was the kind of person who woke up and rolled into the studio. Like tumbled out of bed into the studio next door. Nothing was more important. Talk about losing track of time and forgetting to eat, remind yourself to take care of yourself and be a person. He was a person who gave literally every single second of his thoughts and time and life to music." The singer believes that Mac Miller's legacy will live on through his music and lastly added, "It's just such a beautiful gift that he kind of touched the world with and I think the thing he'd want most is for us to just appreciate it and not forget about it." The couple dated for two years before going their separate ways in May 2018.
For his final album, "Swimming," he was nominated for his first Grammy posthumously in 2018. 'Circles,' Mac Miller's final studio album, was released posthumously in 2020.
