By Chelsea Larke
It all started on the morning of September 16th. It was just like any other normal morning. I woke up, put in my Airpods, and played Mac Miller’s GO:OD AM.
I began pouring myself a bowl of fruit loops and walked into the living room where I asked my friends, “Do you guys wanna go to the city today? I don’t know, maybe we can walk around or something. Maybe thrift?”. The plan was very much random, but my friends agreed to explore the city with me and we were out the Walsh gate in about an hour.
While walking to the 4 train my friends and I decided on a more definitive plan. We were to grab some Ukrainian food in the East Village and go thrift shopping. And that is exactly what we did.
The weather was beautiful and I was genuinely having a good Saturday in the city. I even found a cool hockey shirt at L-train that I was very excited to bring home and wear. Yet, it felt like something was missing.
Some friends suggested we go back to Fordham because we already checked everything off the list for the day, but my friend Makena had a vision; something important was on the horizon for us. She suggested that we go to a record store.
The first thought that popped into my head was Mac Miller, my favorite artist of all time. I could talk about Mac Miller for hours (but I will save that blog post for a rainy day).
I had one goal in mind and that was to find myself a Mac Miller vinyl. I did not have a specific one in mind, but I just wanted one that wasn’t his 2020 Circles album. Because I already had that one at home.
As I walked into the store, I was hit with the smell of old dusty records and I began to have a bad feeling that I would not be able to find what I was looking for. Don’t get me wrong, the store was great and very aesthetically pleasing, but most of the vinyls they had were from the 70s or 80s.
I dug through the M section a little bit and even searched the Hip-Hop section but I still had this gut feeling in my stomach. I was on my last nerve so I finally asked the guy at the check-out if they had Mac Miller vinyls. All I got in response was “No”. I left the store.
About a month passed by since that day in the city and Makena and I had another brilliant idea. We planned to take the Staten Island ferry for free, simply to go to Staten Island and then turn around and go straight back to New York. The rest of the plan was up in the air.
Our free ferry ride was excellent. I got some views of the Statue of Liberty, Staten Island, Battery Park, the Freedom Tower, and the rest of Lower Manhattan. Although this experience was very much a highlight of my week, there is more to this story I have to get to. And that is the amount of troubles and tribulations I went through to find a Mac Miller Vinyl. How hard can that be? Very hard…
After the ferry, we walked around Wall Street and eventually found ourselves in China Town. Makena had a certain record store in mind and I had my hopes up. Well, I shouldn’t have been so hopeful because we got there and immediately left about 5 minutes later. No damn Mac Miller albums were found.
My disappointment turned into determination. I wasn’t playing games anymore and I told myself that I would ride the subway home with a Mac Miller vinyl in my hands.
Our next destination was The Strand, a giant bookstore around Union Square. This bookstore was about a 40-minute walk from Korea Town and I was told by Makena that she had been there before and had bought records there. It sounded promising that they would have Mac Miller albums because I assumed they would have more of a modern selection.
We walked into the store and immediately ran to the record section. In my head I was expecting to see a huge display of records and CDs. Well, this wasn’t the case. There was a sad little stand of maybe 30 records, all of which did not include Mac.
At this point, I was pissed. Defeated I would even say. My morale was low and I wanted to go home. My legs were tired. My feet were hurting. I was at my wit’s end.
Makena said to me, “Look Chelsea, this isn’t over yet. We will find you your Mac Miller vinyl. We are not done. Barnes and Noble is not that far from here,”.
Her pep talk inspired me because I knew that Barnes and Noble had to have a bigger section than The Strand. Barnes and Noble was my last hope, my last resort even (shout out to Papa Roach).
The sun was setting as we rushed past Union Square and busted the doors open to Barnes and Noble. I sprinted to the record section and I could feel that something good was about to happen to me. It’s here…
I was barely digging my way through the M section when I got my hands on Macadelic, Miller’s 2013 mixtape. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was speechless. In tears almost.
Makena pointed out that she had found Best Day Ever, Mac’s 2011 mixtape. I immediately snatched that one out of her hands just because I liked this album a little bit more than Macadelic.
I was curious to see what else they had and I even found Blue Slide Park, which came out in late 2011 as well. I had many options in front of me, projects for which I had a tremendous love. But I decided to pick one to bring back home that day and it was the Best Day Ever album.
I said that I was almost in tears before, but no I was actually crying. Makena literally took a picture of me and all I can say was that I had tears of joy. I had found not one, but three Mac Miller vinyls in that Barnes and Noble and I was going home with one of my favorite albums of his.
That subway ride home I clutched the vinyl and listened to the album on Spotify the whole ride home. These songs off the album include some of my favorite Mac Miller songs of all time which include “Snooze”, “BDE Bonus”, and “She Said”.
The moral of the story: if you need to find Mac Miller vinyls in the city you can rely on Barnes and Noble by Union Square, which is 33 E 17th St (for those wondering).
I now feel the urge to collect all of Mac Miller’s Vinyls, that even includes his newest vinyl that was released this past September, a 2018 Tiny Desk Concert cover of “Small Worlds”, “What’s the Use?”, and “2009”. My love for Mac Miller’s music will never end but hopefully, this hunt for his collection of vinyls will end by the time this school year is over.
