One of Mac Miller’s greatest gifts was his ability to exist in the world of celebrity without feeling like one. The Pittsburgh rapper, who passed away in September at just 26 years old, was beloved by music industry and media figures alike because, despite a decade of fame, he retained a sense of genuine empathy for everyone he met. This came through in his interviews, his live shows, and even his Genius annotations.

Mac was active on Genius from the early stages of his career, first dropping annotations on the site in 2012. He posted more than 50 overall, offering everything from funny quips about punchlines to deep insight about his recording process and relationships in the music industry. Mac often tackled heavy subject matter in his music, and some of his annotations have taken on a new sense of significance in the wake of his tragic passing.

Mac is one of the most important artists we lost in 2018. To celebrate his legacy, Genius put together a walkthrough of significant moments in his career, based entirely on his verified annotations.

Although he grew into a critical darling, Mac’s early work was sometimes derided by critics as a shallow reflection of the “frat rap” movement that was gaining steam in the early part of the decade. In one of his first annotations on Genius, Mac conceded that not everything he rapped about needed to be dissected:

Despite the early criticism, Mac was telling us about his respect for hip-hop history from the jump. His Blue Slide Park hit, “Smile Back,” conflated one of rock’s legends with a hip-hop duo that, in Mac’s view, should command the same level of respect:

Mac spoke openly about how the harsh criticism he faced following the release of Blue Slide Park, coupled with the rising pressures of fame, and his depression and drug use. These feelings started showing themselves in his music on Macadelic, the 2012 mixtape that’s often pegged as a creative turning point in his career. He references struggling with existential questions on “America”:

Despite his troubled mental state, Mac’s vision for his legacy never faltered:

As time went on, however, fame began to take its toll on his relationships. Mac split with Rostrum Records, the Pittsburgh-based indie label that helped develop his star, in 2014. But he had been feeling isolated from his Pennsylvania roots since the release of his sophomore album, Watching Movies With the Sound Off:

He wasn’t exactly enchanted with celebrity culture, either, as he explained in an annotation for his 2013 Ab-Soul collaboration “The End is Near”:

In part due to his reclusive nature, Mac’s house became a place for hip-hop’s rising talent to record and experiment free from the pressures they normally faced in the music industry. His sophomore album featured contributions from a wide array of rappers that spent time there. He explained that his relationship with Ab-Soul was particularly meaningful:

He also drew inspiration from Tyler, The Creator, an artist whose work habits were the polar opposite of Mac’s:

There were, of course, aspects of celebrity culture that he enjoyed:

Long before Mac’s ex-girlfriend Ariana Grande was declaring that “God is a woman,” he was deifying women in his own music:

This idea would heavily inform his next album, 2015’s The Divine Feminine. The album, which was partially inspired by his relationship with Grande, found Mac pondering ideas of true love and emotional vulnerability:

His thoughts on “Dang!,” taken from an episode of Verified, would be the final annotations that Mac shared on Genius, but his career was far from over. He would go on to release Swimming in August 2018—just one month before his untimely death—as yet another sonic evolution that was met with critical acclaim.

The Pittsburgh rapper, only 26 years old at the time of his passing, left behind a robust catalog to be pored over for years to come. Far from the young rapper telling fans that not everything had a deeper meaning, he died as an artist who took deep pride in imbuing his music with his joy and his pain:

As we reflect on his life just a few months after its sudden end, it’s his music and his story, that remain his greatest gifts to the world:

Catch up on all of Mac Miller’s verified annotations on Genius now.