When, just over a month ago, Mac Miller announced while UStreaming that he would be dropping his new mixtape, Best Day Ever, on March 11, his fans were justifiably excited. The project they'd been anticipating since he dropped K.I.D.S. in August of 2010, finally had a release date. Mac promised that if the Best Day Ever became a trending topic on Twitter that night, he'd drop a song from the upcoming release. He kept his word, and before long, "Donald Trump" was out and trending itself. Soon, Mac and his Most Dope team premiered the video, and in under a week it had over 1 million views on YouTube.

Mac received strong support from his fans when he finally released BDE late this past Friday evening (March 11), but the XXL Freshman may have exceeded expectations. Word is BDE got roughly 300,000 downloads in 48 hours.

Now just days removed from the release, Mac took some time to chop it up with XXLMag.com and offer a breakdown of the project, track by track. Thumbs up. —Adam Fleischer

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1. “Best Day Ever” (Prod. by ID Labs)

Basically, to open up this project, we wanted a track that’s going to take people out of whatever they’re doing and just listen. The thing I like about it is I feel like I say a lot in it, and it’s really the introduction for the start to the Best Day Ever. It’s a real trippy vibe to it and it’s supposed to be an epic introduction to get you ready to listen to everything.

A lot of these jams on here, I’m kind of just having fun, but I wanted to make sure on the opening of the project I got a message across. It sums up the message of this project: No matter what, just trying to capture a happy and positive vibe to a situation. I wanted to create a project where if something bad happened in a day, or whatever type of day you were having, you could just listen to this and go into another world and listen to some music that will make you feel good.

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2. Get Up (Prod. by Teddy Roxpin)

This is basically the simulation of waking up and the start to the day. “Best Day Ever” was the introduction to the story, but this is when you wake up and get your shit together. The first words I say is, “It’s about to be big shit poppin’ by the time this shit is droppin’.” It was kind of like me venting on the fact that I’m ready for shit to go to the next level, and the beginning of the next step for me was this song. It was kind of like, I did K.I.D.S. and that happened, but this is me saying that I’m transitioning myself into the next stage of my career.

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3. “Donald Trump” (Prod. by Sap)

Everyone has those days where you don’t know what you’re about to do, but you feel like you’re gonna do something big with your life. This is the next stage. You wake up and then you look and you’re like, I’m gonna do something big today or I’m gonna do something big with my life. This is something to get your heart pumping. It’s fun. I’m not saying this huge, crazy message in it, but the message is kind of deeper than what I say. It’s still a party, but underneath all that, it’s letting you know that you’re about to do something big.

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4. “Oy Vey” (Prod. by ID Labs)

This was just a good time. I don’t know if people know what “Oy vey” is, but it’s a common word in Jewish culture. It’s Yiddish. It’s like, “Ugh.” I thought it would be funny to use that in a song. It’s something catchy and something fun. I’m also singing about how “I’ma buy my mom a house,” kind of saying I believe in myself to do this and kind of laughing at people who are getting mad at everything. I’m showing that I can keep a smile on my face and have a good time regardless.

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5. “I’ll Be There” feat. Phonte (Prod. by Beanz 'n' Kornbread)

My mom and I have been through a lot of shit. Me taking it upon myself to follow this dream, it caused a lot of problems with me and my mom on our day-to-day relationship. I feel like my mom is one of the best moms ever—how I’m sure everyone else feels. So I wanted to make a song speaking on that. I hit Phonte up to sing the hook, because he would give it some... it sounds like church and it’s tight. That’s one of my favorite songs on the project. I think that I did it properly. I sent it to my mom when I did it and she's very happy [laughs].

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6. “Wear My Hat” (Prod. by Chuck Inglish)

Chuck sent me that beat and right off the bat, I loved it. It’s so different. I was like, "Aight, I gotta come at this conceptually." I was actually sitting there fucking around with my hat and I was thinking girls always try to take my hat and put it on [laughs]. So I was like, that’s a thing that always happens that no one ever speaks on. We’re definitely gonna shoot a video for this and it’s gonna be a really cool concept.

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7. “Wake Up” (Prod. by Sap & ID Labs)

Sap is my homie from Philly who did “Donald Trump,” and E Dan and ID Labs. That’s my home team. So I brought Sap into Pittsburgh, and so I put them in a back room together, left, and waited to see what was gonna happen. I came back and the beat was on some crazy party shit, and I just wanted to make a song that would keep people’s hands in the air. It’s a feel-good song that sounds like a different genre.

I wanted to spit on it, was the main thing. I have different bridges and hooks and stuff like that, but I wanted to make sure I went hard spittin’ on it. So I came with some verses that I thought are some top-tier verses, not just some catchy stuff. I don’t think people will be able to get everything I say as easily, which I wanted, because I attacked it so hard.

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8. “All Around The World” (Prod. by Just Blaze)

This is one of my favorite songs on the project. I’ve had the “All Around The World” concept for a while and I’ve tried it on different beats. My homie Black Diamond originally worked on it and I did the track to it. I went over to Just Blaze’s and I played him some joints off the new project, and I played him that one, and he was like, “I could turn this into a hit.” I was like, “Go ahead!” [laughs]. Mastercraft did the sample, and he’s friends with Mastercraft, so they gave him the session to the original song to work with. So he had all tools to make that into a banger.

That was something that I wanted to be a party. It goes with the message of me trying to be a universal artist and have all different kinds of people enjoy the music that I’m making. I’m hoping that this song is actually played all around the world. No matter who you are, where you’re from, everyone likes to party. This is definitely gonna have a video.

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9. “Down The Rabbit Hole” (Prod. by Blue of The Sore Losers)

This is supposed to feel like you’re on some crazy types of drugs. On the hook I’m like, “This song can be your drugs, just please don’t take too much/You can have it free of charge/So I do it for the love.” I wanted to make a cool vibe song that sounded like an acid trip or you’re on some drug. Even if you’re not high, it makes you feel that way. I just love trippy music. When I played Juicy J the project, this was his favorite joint.

It’s called “Down The Rabbit Hole” because it takes you on a little journey. It’s an Alice in Wonderland reference.

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10. “In The Air” (Prod. by Ritz Reynolds)

I wanted to make a song that was really reflective of everything going on right now. This song is one where I’m not really having fun on it; I’m just speaking on my situation and how it makes me feel. “In The Air” is a journey into my head to what I’ve been thinking about and how the success I’ve achieved has made me feel. This was to tell the people who support me that I appreciate their support.

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11. “Play Ya Cards” (Prod. by Chuck Inglish)

I went over to Chicago just to kick it with Chuck and get in the lab, and we were just on some funny, fun ass shit that day. He played this and I was like, this is some straight up ‘80s stuff. I wanted to make a different type [of] jam that you could still have fun too and kind of bring back that old school “Throw your hands in the air, and wave ‘em like you just don’t care” type of vibe.

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12. “She Said” (Prod. by Khrysis)

When I was in North Carolina, I was with 9th Wonder and Khrysis. Khrysis played me that beat, and I was actually really sick that day, which is why I say that on the intro. And I was using my homie’s phone to read the lyrics, and his mom called at the beginning of the track, so that’s why I was saying that too.

A lot of these are really conceptually thought out with bridges and hooks and things that make up a song. With this joint, I wanted it to be a straight raw, one layer all the way through, and just spittin’ and a hook that was cool. That’s another one of my favorite jams on the tape, 'cause I feel like I went in on it.

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13. “Life Ain’t Easy” (Prod. by ID Labs)

This was something I wanted to make—like, an uplifting song. And I wanted to say something. That song is really important in the context. A lot of the songs I’m talking about fun shit, partying and girls. And then a lot of others I’m spittin’ and I got witty punchlines. With this song, it’s not really about the punchlines or how clever my wordplay is, it’s more about saying something. Even though all this stuff is happening, I’m still the same dude that has a good head on his shoulders and a positive state of mind. It lets people realize I’m not any different than I was before all this.

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14. “Snooze” (Prod. by ID Labs)

It’s kind of the shock value of everything. Everything is so crazy to me right now. I just feel like I’m dreaming. I’m talking about how much crazier life has gotten, and usually I just keep on going and I’m not really thinking about it—it’s just a continuous process of work, work, work. But when I take a step back and think about everything, it’s crazy to think about the achievements and accomplishments I’ve had.

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15. “Keep Floatin’” feat. Wiz Khalifa (Prod. by ID Labs)

I wanted a cool ass outro. Wiz killed the hook. It’s a song that you can smoke to, obviously. It’s cleansing too. You can hear it and relax. It’s like, whatever happens, I’m cool and I’m just doing me.

When Wiz was in Pittsburgh working, he actually got super high one night and did this dope ass hook. And then he left and went on tour and forgot that he ever did it. I hit him and I was like, “You didn’t rap on this, man. I need to rap on this.” He was like, “Definitely. Go ahead. I completely forgot I did that shit.” When I finished, I played it for him and he was like, “You killed that shit.”

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16. “BDE Bonus” (Prod. by ID Labs)

It’s the same song as the intro. Instrumentally, it’s longer. The beat rides longer and it comes in longer. It’s the same lyrics and the same hook. Just one is some boom-bap drum shit, and one is an epic, building intro.

I thought it would be cool to stress that message again. The cool thing about the two songs is that although I say the same thing, it’s a different feel from different times you listen to it. The first time, every sentence hits you. On the bonus, it’s like a cool vibe song that you can just sit and reflect on.

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