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Jewish teen rapper’s first album tops Billboard chart

November 16, 2011

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Jewish teen rapper Mac Miller had his first album debut at the top of the Billboard 200 chart.

“Blue Slide Park,” the first album-length effort from Miller, a 19-year-old Pittsburgh-reared emcee, sold 144,000 copies in its first week.

The rapper, whose real name is Malcolm McCormick, has a Jewish mother and a non-Jewish father. He has a prominent "chai" tattoo in Hebrew letters on his upper arm.

His feat is all the more remarkable since his album is independently distributed by Rostrum Records. The last and only indie album release to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard chart was Tha Dogg Pound’s “Dogg Food” in 1995.

Miller’s meteoric rise is in large part due to his adroit use of social-networking media. He has more than a million “likes” on Facebook and nearly the same number of followers on Twitter.

Miller’s most popular song on YouTube is “Donald Trump,” and the “Celebrity Apprentice” host has signaled his approval of the track. Another big hit for Miller is “Nikes on my Feet,” which is an ode to his footwear in the same tradition as Run DMC’s “My Adidas.”

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