As the first song on Mac Miller’s new album Watching Movies With the Sound Off, “The Star Room” sets the rapper on a new course. Over a RZA-influenced beat produced by Earl Sweatshirt under his randomblackdude alias, Miller raps nearly unabated for four minutes with a dexterity that he had rarely displayed on the cheery party records that made him famous. What follows is an eye-opening record of broken beats and neo-soul headrushes.
The song’s visuals riff on scenes that have appeared in a few of his previous clips, pulling distressed models from “Watching Movies” and a dazzlingly lit room from “I Am Who I Am (Killin Time).” But our attention is drawn to the couch from where Miller raps for most of the video, which places him in front of a wall that is scribbled with the text “I’M NOT REAL”. The meaning of that all is up for discussion, but either way Really Makes You Think, doesn’t it? Presumably, this all has something to do with Miller’s use of the alter ego Delusional Thomas as the “featured” artist here.
Miller — the “real” version, presumably — will be headlining the second Odd Future festival alongside Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, the Creator on November 9.
