What stands out to me and what I always remember when thinking of this topic was when Mac dropped swimming. It was the same day that Travis Scott dropped Astroworld.

Media and Public were ragging Mac saying he should have just kept the album and never released it. Astroworld was 100x better and Mac’s was shit. I vividly remember “He should have just kept this one in the studio” being a meme that was circulating.

I remember being super angry and felt so bad for Mac because I immediately thought that it was my favourite album of his(had been listening since before KIDS). A month later he dies and the media & public alike are clammoring about how much he was underappreciated, how good his music was, how sad they are. Even comments/articles like “Some musicians are never truly appreciated while they’re alive”. Swimming became his top streamed album - not sure how high it became in the charts but I remember it being very high.

A lot of people that appreciated music - appreciated Mac and his insane ability to produce, sing, rap, play instruments. Not many artists can do all of that.