"Dang!" by Mac Miller

Mac Miller’s The Divine Feminine is a love letter to Mother Nature. “Dang!” was the first single off of the album and served as the perfect introduction to this concept.

Produced by Pomo, “Dang!” opens with a jazz/funk sound that becomes the background to .Paak’s R&B vocals and Miller’s hip-hop and rap verses.

When .Paak sings the hook, “I can’t keep on losing you over complications,” it is a message to the people in his life that have passed away. Every time you hear the chorus, you can hear the pain in .Paaks voice.

This is where Miller comes in. The song is no longer about the loss of a loved one. Now, the song is about a breakup. Miller’s verses are full of admission of guilt. He sings “I know I ain’t a saint, if it ain’t too late, well…” Then .Paak comes in with “I can’t keep on losing you.” Miller takes .Paak’s words and uses them to express a thought of his own.

Both .Paak and Miller sing about love and loss in their own way. Sometimes we lose a friend to the grim reaper. Sometimes we lose a partner to a stranger.

Loss is never easy. So, when Miller follows .Paak’s words of heartbreak with lines like “I just eat pussy, other people need food” it acts as comic relief. Backed by Julliard Students and their horns, .Paak and Miller manage to take a topic like loss and turn it in to something to sing and dance about.

There is a lesson to be learned here: bad things happen. So, we might as well celebrate life for what it is.

Word Count: 274

Works Cited

"Mac Miller (Ft. Anderson .Paak) – Dang!" Genius. Genius Media Group Inc., 28 July 2016. Web. 06 Feb. 2019. <https://genius.com/Mac-miller-dang-lyrics>.

Strauss, Matthew. "Listen to "Dang!" [ft. Anderson .Paak] by Mac Miller." Pitchfork. Pitchfork, 28 July 2016. Web. 06 Feb. 2019. <https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/18463-mac-miller-dang-ft-anderson-paak/>.