A press release by Fox News Los Angeles on September 3rd stated that Cameron James Pettit, 28, was arrested on the morning of September 4th in connection to the death of rapper Malcolm James McCormick, known by fans as Mac Miller. McCormick died in his Los Angeles apartment of a fatal overdose of oxycodone, cocaine, and fentanyl on September 7th of 2018. As cited in the press release, the affidavit which supported James’ criminal complaint arrest shows that he distributed controlled substances to Miller, then 26, and his friends about two days before his fatal overdose. Communications between the two that were cited in the affidavit show that Pettit agreed to sell McCormick and his friends 30 mg oxycodone pills, as well as cocaine and sedative drug Xanax. Instead of delivering genuine oxycodone, however, Pettit delivered pills that were laced with fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid fifty times stronger than heroin.
According to the press release, hours after McCormick’s death was reported by news outlets, Pettit sent a text message to a friend stating that he believed he would “die in jail”.
Fans are posting their reactions on social media, namely Twitter. One fan posted a tweet with a screenshot of the late rapper’s cryptic lyrics, writing “This makes the whole Mac Miller news even worse.”
Many fans are also expressing their emotions about past rumors that Mac intentionally overdosed to cope with the pain of his recent ex-girlfriend, Ariana Grande, getting engaged to Pete Davidson just months after her split with him.
Fans are also using his death to show that many other rappers who have overdosed most likely didn’t know that the substances they were using had been tampered with. Rapper Gustav Åhr, known to fans as Lil Peep, also died of an overdose in late 2017 under similar circumstances. Åhr died from an overdose of fentanyl and Xanax. The pills he took, like McCormick, had also been laced with the fatal synthetic.
Striking similarities can be taken from these two cases. First, both men were in a position for their careers to become extremely successful. While McCormick had been in the rap scene for many years before Åhr, he was set to go on tour just months after he passed away. In June of this year, the first posthumous track with his work on it was released by the group Free Nationals.
Lil Peep was just coming up from the underground rap scene, but had a very large following on Soundcloud, where he had amassed 1.4M followers as of today. His posthumous album, “Call Me When You’re Sober, Part 2” was released by Columbia Records in October of 2018 with the permission of his mother, Liza Womack.
After McCormick’s death, and many others like his, fans find many cryptic references to the artist’s untimely death in their lyrics. However, McCormick is an interesting case because of how open he has been about his struggles with substance abuse, revealing in a past interview that he began using controlled substances and opioids at the age of 15. In his last music video and single before his death, “Self Care”, he details his struggles with substance abuse.
However, the most chilling part of the music video is that McCormick appears in a coffin, and at the end of the video carves the words memento mori into the wood of the coffin, which in Latin means “remember that you have to die”. At the end of the video, McCormick is seen being able to break out of the coffin, which many fans believe symbolized his constant struggle with substance abuse.