#47

#47. Mac Miller (feat Anderson .Paak) - Dang! (#46, 2016)

5th of 2016

Listen

"Dang!" is a complete anomaly. Mac Miller spent most of his career charting only in America and Canada. His first album went to #1 on the Billboard 200 and every album since then has charted at #4 or higher. Meanwhile it took him three albums to even chart in Australia, and only his posthumous "Circles" album charted in the top 5. Just largely not a going concern over here. Enter this song, and it doesn't really move the needle in the US, but it actually charts in Australia. The only other real national chart it enters is in France where it gets a little higher and I have no idea how it happened. It feels like a strange form of word-of-mouth that somehow skipped over its starting place. It's probably one of Mac Miller's most popular songs, just by clearly appealing beyond his regular base, but it's never had any real ascended attention for it. In that sense, we're probably witnessing one of the last remnants of triple j airplay making a real dent in the wider world of popularity, as for years before and after this, it was the only song of his they ever playlisted. Evidently whoever decided to do that must have heard something special in this.

The most likely culprit of this is Anderson .Paak. It was at this point in time that he was on a lengthy run as a reliable featured artist. It got to the point that I recall triple j (or a similar site) even published an article at the time ranking all of his recent feature spots. At the time, I was very into the Louis Futon remix of GoldLink's "Unique". It's a remix that feels more natural than the song that it's based on, and just ends up as a blast. For my money though, the real starring role is on KAYTRANADA's song "GLOWED UP", which was a near miss for this list at #107. Let's just say that if it had qualified, it'd be making a serious push for a top 10 finish here. From the opening notes, that song has a hypnotic grip on me I just can't get elsewhere, and .Paak's role is just to glide over it all effortlessly. If I'm giving "Dang!" the bronze medal just for his feature credits in 2016, then that's not to be taken lightly. I'm not sure anyone's ever had such a strong run of smashing it out of the park on other people's songs.

The other element in place here is Mac Miller's improved credibility. It's one of those things that generally happen behind the scenes through people who are incredibly thorough about sifting through music and finding the gold. By the time the moment arrives to suggest genuinely listening to Mac Miller for me, he's had some well-liked albums and an acclaimed mixtape. It's enough to give him a proper chance, and one that he flourished with, and allowed him to firmly put his past reputation behind him. You just can't imagine him as the loud, obnoxious frat boy he used to be. The music got a lot more reserved, and the lyrics were much more personal.

I haven't seen much of a re-assessment for "The Divine Feminine", the album this comes from. I think this could potentially happen down the line by sheer volume of recognisable songs. It didn't make a noticeable splash at the time, but now about half of the album boasts some serious streaming numbers, including the song "Cinderella" which is charting around the world as I write this. That's one of the wildest things that's happened in the charts in 2026 because it's an 8 minute long song and wasn't even one of the more popular songs to begin with, though a belated collective realisation that the song is about Ariana Grande seems to be making it resonate strongly. I think if you put it with the other popular songs on the album like "Congratulations" and "My Favorite Part", there's potential that it gets seen as a classic. It's the same thing I feel has happened with Kanye West's "Graduation". Mac Miller doesn't really have a single career defining moment so you'll probably get everyone to fall back to the album with the most songs they recognise or want to go back to. I wouldn't begrudge this; there's every chance that "Dang!" gets a bit more attention and suddenly finds proper recognition beyond the small pocket of us who admired it at the time.

There's a quote from me around when the song came out that I lamented the fact it wasn't one of the biggest hits of the year. It shows how much of a shock it all was to the system because I also disparaged Mac Miller as part of a backhanded compliment to Anderson .Paak. I'll contend that the song runs for a little over 5 minutes which is generally a dealbreaker in 2016. Like, I'm looking at the Billboard Year End list and the only song that makes it to the 5 minute mark is "Low Life" by Future (though both of Adele's songs are close). In a year where it felt like he and Drake were pulling hip-hop in two different directions, there wasn't much room for this light, airy single, in addition to the fact that Anderson .Paak was to the Billboard charts what Carrot Top was to the Box Office. The song is funky, but more in a jazzy way than a "Cake By The Ocean" way. The brass elements are used in sparing fashion that allows them to poke their head into the song for small additions, but never in a way that overtakes Mac's command over the song. Getting Anderson .Paak to say 'Wait!' and have the music cut out each time is a good decision.

Otherwise it's just a very idiosyncratic song. What could just be an endless screed of the two of them lamenting lost love is just constantly propped up by fun ideas. Mac Miller doesn't even introduce himself until around the 50 second mark, and it's after Anderson .Paak has stopped singing and started echoing. Mac's just in the background himself like he's amping himself up before going at full speed (not literally). Anderson .Paak is turned into another instrument to pop up during the verse, and it's all building up to hear Mac say 'We both know that's some bullshit' with the trumpets right behind him. The music changes up completely again for Mac's second verse. When he gets to the punchline for the second time, he changes the 'We' into an 'I', and the music is considerably more empty for it, which is just a funny idea. Then in all spirals into a quirky bridge which I like a lot before .Paak steers it back on course near the end. It borders on needlessly complicated but the whole thing just winds up being so relaxed and easy to like.