Casey Veggies chose rap over college, because of Mac Miller. The Los Angeles rapper got the call from Malcolm to come on tour with him while he was still in high school—twice. After that, it was a wrap for Casey. He would pursue rap full-time.

Mac showed him the ropes, taught him how to perform, and gave him a helping hand, time after time, as only Mac Miller could. Their friendship felt like the cornerstone of Veggies’ come up, and though Casey assures me he’s staying strong, Mac’s loss still reverberates through his days. But, Most Dope is forever.

In his own words, here is Casey Veggies remembering Mac Miller.

“It’s been kind of gloomy, ever since Mac passed… We met through music! We became friends through music, that was one of the most special things about our relationship. I had dropped this album, when I was in high school, called Sleeping In Class. I was in eleventh grade or tenth grade. A few months after I dropped that album, Mac Miller had hit me up on Twitter. Told me he rocked with the album and he was like ‘We should link up.’ I remember I was following him. He wanted to bring me on tour! That’s how the relationship kicked off.

“He was just a super humble and raw human being. He was always himself! A cool, friendly person. He was a good person. That was one person I met, he gave off a crazy positive vibe. That’s one of the first things I remember: meeting him in person at one of our first shows. We met going on tour with each other. I missed two weeks of eleventh grade to go on tour with Mac.

"I missed two weeks of eleventh grade to go on tour with Mac."

“When we were in the Bay, I remember it like it was yesterday, me and Mac recorded 'Can I Live,' a song on Sleeping In Class. Mac ends up hopping on a song in the hotel room. He had a whole studio set up. That song ends up blowing up once we dropped the Sleeping In Class deluxe edition. Right after, we went on the West Coast tour. Everything, for me, just went up. Mac was helping me out as an artist. Me working with him helped me, boosted my career. Once we started working, it was a special moment. It was just a special experience, and it gave me a lot of confidence. He don’t know it, but he was showing me the ropes.

“It was genuine! We rocked with each other every day. He invited me to his hotel room, like ‘Let’s record, bro. Let’s do music.’ He rocked with me. It was so amazing, he ended up bringing me on another tour. So, I finished high school… By that time, he dropped Blue Slide Park, and he called me like ‘Yeah, bro, I told you I had a tour for you.’ This was right when I was graduating high school. I was about to go to college. I was doing my thing with music. I was coming up, but I wasn’t at a level where I could just jump on my tour. I kinda was on the fence. Should I go to college, or should I do this rap thing? Mac don’t really know it, but he was the main reason I chose to pursue rap 100 percent.

“He brought me on the Blue Slide Park tour. It was 66 shows around the whole United States. That was my first big tour! It was three months long. I graduated high school and then the tour started in September. He gave me the confidence to say, ‘You know what? College can wait.’

“That tour, it was a lot of ups and downs. I was losing my voice. I was getting sick. I was getting homesick. You think you ready and excited for it, but once you’re gone, you get hit with all that real life stuff. You really don’t have nobody to watch and make sure you good… Mac just made me feel comfortable. He made me feel like everything was good. He made it look easy. To see the way he was killing them shows, he made it look too easy. Bro was really made for this shit. I was 18 seeing the way he affected his fan base. They looked up to him in a real way.

“He was just super vulnerable. He didn’t really care what people thought; he just wanted to say what was on his mind. From what I got from him, he just loved to make people happy. He loved to make fun, happy, positive music. You know what I’m saying? Then, he grew into different sounds and talking about different things. He started trying to make people happy with his music and putting out positive vibrations. I love that about him. And he’s always super honest.

“One time on tour, our bus got pulled over in Texas. We were on our way to do a show from New Mexico to Texas. Mac made it to Austin, but we didn’t make it yet. We got pulled over. We had a little weed on the bus, just regular. But in Texas, weed is like… Weed is super breaking the law. They don’t tolerate weed in Texas. They almost took all of us to jail. But my boy, he was a stand-up guy, the homie ended up going to jail for our whole bus. He took the rap for it.

"Mac don’t really know it, but he was the main reason I chose to pursue rap 100 percent."

“I explained the story to Mac, and without having to ask Mac for anything, he had his business manager send over some money to help bail out my homie. Mac gave me some money, I put some money up, and we ended up having to drive back to the part of Texas we were in to pick my homie up. We did the show in Austin, and right after the show, we drove five hours backtracking to pick up my homie and bail him out. Mac, outta the kindness of his heart, gave us money to help bail my homie out.

“I was always a positive person, but being around Mac? He made me wanna help people more. The way he was moving and the way he helped me… Mac helped a lot of artists out. He gave a lot of artists his platform, and I was definitely one.

“The last time I saw him, we just shook each other’s hand, gave each other a hug. We hadn’t talked every day for the last year. He was going through his own personal things. I was going through my own personal things. We both pursuing our rap careers. We hadn’t been connected as much as the previous years. I remember, our final studio session, just vibing out at his crib in Studio City. I remember seeing him backstage at a show… I believe we were in Canada. We were smiling, and we were excited to say what’s up to each other. We just shook hands and gave each other a hug. That was my last time being able to see him.

“I think about it. I think about when I was coming up the stairs, and he was coming down the stairs. His face lit up! I could tell he was excited to see me. Then I saw him, one time, bike riding with ScHoolboy Q. They were biking, and I had run into him. Him, Tyler, and ‘em, was all goin’ biking. Tyler and ScHoolboy, they bike around the city a lot. They were all biking through the neighborhood. It was funny to me. It caught me by surprise. That’s like 2016, 2017.

“I think [Mac]’s remembered for being a great artist, great spirit, a great human being. A super giving person. His positive light, definitely, was left on the world. Everybody remembers him for all the positivity he shared with the world. When he left, a lot of people felt the difference. A world without Mac is a different world.”