From Hits Daily Double:
His name is Mac Miller, and he’s about to become the surprise success story of the fourth quarter.
Born Malcolm McCormick, the son of a Christian architect father and Jewish mother photographer, the Pittsburgh-born rapper has elicited comparisons to Eminem while building an impressive following on social media that includes a combined 2.7 million Twitter, Facebook and MySpace followers. This year, Miller’s already put out two digitally released mixtapes and an EP, On and On and On Beyond, which has sold 60k on his hometown indie Rostrum label, home to fellow Steel City hip-hop icon Wiz Khalifa.
Miller’s YouTube channel TreeJTV has attracted almost 150 million views, with his most recent viral smash, “Donald Trump,†at 28 million views and counting. Trump himself acknowledged the song on Twitter when it reached 20 million views.
S.F.-based independent digital distributor INgrooves, which handles all of partial owner UMG’s product for that marketplace, will release Blue Slide Park, Miller’s upcoming full-length album, while using Ron Spaulding’s Fontana team to put out his physical debut. The new album hits Nov. 8, and insiders are predicting it to be in the race to become Fontana’s first-ever, six-figure #1 debut on the HITS album sales chart.
On a pretty unrelated note, the same website also expects (through first-day sales) Wale’s Ambition to sell 170-190K. Let’s hope that number keeps progressing.
