“Nobody can mix Mac Miller’s music like me because I was with him for ten years. I was in the studio for a lot of his music like Blue Slide Park, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, Faces and everything after that,” Clockwork DJ, Mac Miller’s longtime DJ, told ONE37pm.
Mac Miller’s impact on the world is as incontrovertible as his death, and his music is a constant reminder of the immutability of both. A generation of millennials can map out their growth into adulthood with Miller’s songs as landmarks. On Saturday, Clockwork DJ, Mac’s DJ for the last ten years of his life, plans to put on a four-hour set full of rare and popular Mac Miller songs at Brooklyn Bowl in honor of what would’ve been his 28th birthday on Jan. 19.
The honesty of Mac’s music that endeared him to millions is the same that could make listening to his music heartbreaking. Three years before he died (from an accidental drug overdose) he rapped on “Perfect Circle/God Speed,” “They don’t want me to O.D. and have to talk to my mother and tell her they could’ve done more to help me, and she’d be crying saying she’d do anything to have me back.” Clockwork wants to assure those who attend the Mac Miller tribute party that honoring him means honoring all of the emotions he elicited.
“You don’t feel weird or shy that you’re shedding a tear because the person right next to you is doing the same. Even the DJ is crying,” Clockwork said. “People say, ‘There’s no crying in the club.’ You can cry in the club at this party.”
Before he spreads Mac’s spirit throughout Brooklyn Bowl, Clockwork spoke with ONE37pm about the last conversation he had with Mac Miller before his death, why this party is necessary and club memories with Mac.
ONE37pm: How long have you been preparing for this event?
Clockwork DJ: I only did this event this year because of the fans. It’s been an outpour of support and people wanting this event to be an annual event. Truth be told, I wasn’t going to do it this year, but so many fans have hit me about it. Some fans came to the one I did in Pittsburgh. Some fans came to the one I did last year in Brooklyn. It was so much love in the room at those events that they came to me wanting me to do it again. So I’m really doing it for them. I’m doing it for myself, as well, because it’s kind of therapeutic to always DJ, hear his records and think about the times those records were made and the moments. It’s good for me to not shy away from it and act like it never happened. It’s a needed thing because I’ve never been anywhere where somebody played more than three Mac Miller songs in the club. I’m doing a four-hour set, which shows how extensive his catalog is.
What was the first one of these events like following his untimely death in September 2018?
Clockwork DJ: The first one I did was last year in Brooklyn and it was amazing. I tried to stream it on YouTube, but the copyright stuff was popping up with every song I played, so they eventually blocked the stream. I want to make it an annual thing like Yams Day. Yams Day is a day where all the homies and people who knew Yams come out. This is only my second year doing it, so we’re still very fresh. I want it to be an annual memorial. As long as I’m on this Earth, people will never forget about Mac Miller.