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On the aspirational 'Donald Trump,' from 2011's free download mixtape Best Day Ever, Miller layers skittering drums over gulps and squeaks of wordless vocals. Like Drake, he pairs it all with an approach to rhyming that's certainly rudimentary but smartly rides close enough to the beat that it tricks new listeners into thinking he's totally killing it. He indulges a strained 'whoa, man' delivery that suggests he's stunned by his own ability to rap. His beats hit hard but feel third-spliff-of-the-day breezy. Miller expertly re-enacts all the core elements of 'real' hip-hop: His hooks are chanted rather than handed over to a good and proper singer. Miller swerved into and stuck with Wiz's cargo shorts-appealing lane, and he found his own throng. Fellow Pittsburgh weed rap twerp Wiz Khalifaa major contributor to the varied, DIY Internet rap scenebroke through to the mainstream, selling out amphitheaters and climbing charts internationally. For most, he arrived less than three years ago, in the midst of a flashpoint where blog-fueled hip-hop pushed major label rap further into irrelevance. To this point, Miller's career hinges on right-place, right-time fortuity, combined with an ability and willingness to genuflect before his core fan base. It's that he isn't very good, and we're now treating him like he's great.

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We might not learn a lot of specifics about him, but there’s a lot of honesty in his music if you look for it.The problem with Pittsburgh-born, 21-year-old rapping white boy Mac Miller isn't that he's bad. He’s a corny white rapper (meant as a compliment) who loves his family, friends, and hometown. There’s a kind of authenticity to him that has been there since the beginning, if you look for it: He doesn’t rap about breaking the law, because he’s not about that life. 'I know niggas think you white and you not about to go in with these bars,' chimes in Domo Genesis on 'In the Bag'.

Many songs here reference his status as a white rapper, signaling his awareness of the rap game’s perception of him: 'I’m a white rapper/ They always call me shady,' he says on 'Brand Name', just a few minutes into the album. He’s never preachy, though: He sounds refreshed and rejuvenated, like someone who has been going for daily walks, eating veggies and drinking fruit smoothies every day. 'Everybody saying I need rehab/ So I’m speeding with a blindfold on/ It won’t be long before they watching me crash/ And they don’t wanna see that,' he raps, thanking the people that got him through the toughest time of his life. On 'God Speed', the album’s standout track, he pays tribute to the close friends in his Most Dope Family, especially his right hand man Q, and it’s genuinely touching. The interlude before 'God Speed' includes a voicemail from his brother, checking in on him at a low point in his life, and later on in the song, he admits: 'White lines be numbing them dark times/ Them pills that I’m popping, I need to man up/ Admit it’s a problem, I need a wake up/ Before one morning, I don’t wake up.' It’s funny to hear a 23-year-old who just kicked his habit and could be considered a kid himself refer regretfully to 'all the kids doing drugs' on 'In the Bag', but Mac has enough of his sense of humor intact to keep the album from playing like a D.A.R.E.

'I’ve seen some motherfucking shit,' he warns on 'Two Matches'. Lyrically, Mac offers a music industry 'Scared Straight'.

Miller said he recorded 400 songs for Watching, and sometimes you couldn’t help but wonder about the selection process ( 'Objects in the Mirror'?) but on GO:OD AM, he’s learned to self-edit. The beats on GO:OD AM have a New York, boom-bap feel, with lots of jazz samples and harder drums, and it’s both more varied and more upbeat, from the trap-sounding beats of 'When in Rome' or the Chief Keef-featuring 'Cut the Check' to love songs like 'ROS' or the Miguel collaboration 'The Weekend'. Getting through the 16 tracks on Blue Slide Park was like an endurance test, and even the deeper and much-improved Watching Movies started to sound interchangeable before it ended. From start to finish, this is his most refined and well put-together project.

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