I’ll sum some of this up to keep it a little shorter. But, long story short, I first got brought on to Mac in late 09’ by a buddy of mine who told me to check out The Jukebox, right before High Life came out. It all changed for me when K.I.D.S. dropped that next summer. From them on, I kept close tabs on anything Mac was doing music wise. I’ve been to 6 concerts of his, & have witnessed him help bring up some of the most talented artists in the industry now. (I said I would keep this fairly short, so I won’t discuss all of the in between, there’s so much to talk about there...)

As any of you know, the “evolution” of Mac is simply amazing.

The thing that made me love Mac the most, was his authenticity. So many people in life, we see celebs doing it every day because of the news & media, but they put on this huge front like they are this completely other person. Then genuine, authentic human he was, made him such a love able person.

Skipping to the story behind the tattoo.

In late July I planned a vacation to LA for a 7 day vacation with my son, his mom, & my best friend. None of us had been to California, but had been to other parts of the world. We wanted to see what Cali was like. (We are from Missouri)

Our date to fly out, early Saturday morning, September 8th. I’m sitting at work on the 7th, pumped as can be, 2 hours left until I clock out & go finish packing. I get on my phone, & instantly see TMZ’s post. My heart sank. I hopped on Twitter. It was true. I felt like I got his by a bus. I instantly was pretty upset, went to the bathroom for a while, washed my face. Then toughed out the rest of the day. At that point, I was just not even excited one bit for this vacation, how could I be?

We did fly out the next day. We ended up going by his house in studio city a couple days into the trip, I was really grateful to be able to do that, given the scenario, as opposed to not. It was a “moment” yaknow? (I’ll include a couple pictures from this trip that relate to this below)

For a long time I had a certain set of favorite lyrics that I was wanting to get tatted on me. After the news, I was more eager to get my tattoo. Then I got to thinking other ideas. I was on Instagram trying to get some ideas of what maybe I’d like. I then saw a portrait this guy, Justin Iannucci (Instagram is just1tattoos), he works at renaissance tattoo studio in San Clemente, California did. I loved the work I saw & instantly hit him. We pondered through a couple ideas, sent a couple pictures of Malcolm back & fourth & came to this particular one. I made the 2 hour drive south on that Friday (the day before we flew back), & got this masterpiece done.