Mac Whaley: Creating His Therapy

Zach Bailey, editor|October 16, 2014

Watch out Lil’ Wayne, here comes MC Crae.

Months of hard work finally pay off as rising rap star Mac Whaley, Cotter junior, has recently dropped his latest mix tape, A Record of Therapy.

After the success of his last disc, MOWATIS (My Own Words and Thoughts in Song), which came out in December of 2013, Whaley decided in early February that it might be worth it to try a second effort.

After recording the first song for A Record of Therapy, titled “What Do You Believe?” directly after the release of his first project, Whaley continued in his writing and ended up recording a total of 15 songs for the album.

“The last track [I recorded] was actually the intro, which was finished the Sunday before the release date.”

“Originally, this album meant to be titled The Craezy Experience and be played like a movie, much how Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d. City was done. The track “Look Alive” which I performed at last year’s talent show, was recorded for this concept, along with an intro. As time went on, the idea made less and less sense to me, as, for most of it, I would’ve been writing about experiences that hadn’t occurred yet.”

After a few months of working on the album, Whaley received a new inspiration, “Around January/February, I was listening to Grieves’ album Together/Apart. That album is the project I listen to when I feel depressed or glum. It dawned on me that, if Grieves album could be my ‘therapy’, maybe my story could be someone else’s.”

After writing about half of the album’s material in his room, and the other half in his study, Whaley went on to look for instruments to use in the album.

“All of the instrumentals (outside of “Soundtrack 2 My Life” remix) were permitted for non-profit project, which ARoT was,” Whaley stated.

After the addition of instrumentals, come the ever so important lyrics. “Often, the beat told the story I wrote (The ‘Into the Dark’ instrumental was very melodramatic, ‘On Behalf’ and ‘What Do You Believe?’ were darker, etc.). In the middle of the process, I wanted a track ‘for the hip-hop heads’ that would still feed the concept. Thus, ‘The Hunter’ was born, including (poorly done) samples from Lil’ Wayne and The Pharcyde.”

After all of the work was done, Whaley put the tracks down, and formed what is now A Record of Therapy. Keeping only what he thought were the best songs on the CD, the finished project ended up being only 28 minutes long.

Whaley went on to speak about how the inspiration for the CD came to him, “This album was inspired by this weird stage of sophomore year. I often saw pictures of people smiling, chilling, having a good time, and I realized that I didn’t really have that. Sure, I had friends, but no one really to hang out with outside of school. Part of this, I figured, was that I lived 15 minutes away from everyone else, I’m awkward in a group setting, and I worked all day Sunday. Most days in school I tried to mind to myself, since I had no one to confide my problems with. In order to, hopefully, find someone to relate, I created this.”

“I wanted ARoT to say ‘Hey! Here’s this lonely, sad, middle-class white boy telling his emotions. Does anyone else feel the same?’” Whaley said.

For an online version of his album, follow the link below, and be sure to follow @mccraefresh on all social media sites, and to watch for any works he might have coming out in the near future.

“Thanks to all that have listened to the project. Every positive comment I’ve received, I am grateful for,” Whaley said.

A Record of Therapy – track list