Mac Miller’s Swimming isn't just an album; it’s a living, breathing document of a man trying to keep his head above water. When you get to the final track, so it goes mac miller gives us something that feels eerily prophetic and strangely peaceful. It’s a song that fans still dissect years later because it wasn’t just a closer—it was a statement.
Honestly, it’s hard to listen to that track without thinking about what happened just weeks after its release. But to really get why it’s so important, you have to look past the tragedy. You have to look at the music. The track is built on this spacey, drifting production that feels like floating in a void. It’s Mac at his most vulnerable, yet his most controlled.
He was obsessed with the ending of this song. He even told Jon Brion, who helped produce it, that he wanted the outro to sound like "the ascension into heaven." That’s a heavy thing to ask for. But somehow, they did it.
What So It Goes Mac Miller Tells Us About His State of Mind
People always talk about Mac’s "darkness," but that’s a bit of a lazy take. If you listen to the lyrics of so it goes mac miller, it’s not just about being sad. It’s about acceptance. The phrase "so it goes" itself is a direct nod to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. In that book, the narrator says "so it goes" every time someone dies. It’s a way of saying that life happens, death happens, and there’s a certain inevitability to it all that we can’t fight.
Mac was reading a lot. He was thinking. He was processing his public breakup, his legal troubles, and his struggle with sobriety through a lens of cosmic indifference.
The song starts with that clicking sound—like a film reel starting up. It’s meta. He’s watching his own life. The lyrics "My god, it go on and on / Just like a circle, I go back where I'm from" hint at a cycle he felt trapped in. We all have those cycles. You wake up, you try to be better, you stumble, and you start over. He was just doing it in front of millions of people.
The Influence of Jon Brion and the "Ascension" Outro
The collaboration between Mac and Jon Brion is one of those "lightning in a bottle" moments in music history. Brion is a legend—the guy behind the scores for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Lady Bird. He brought a cinematic weight to Mac’s hip-hop roots.
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When they were finishing so it goes mac miller, Mac was very specific about the ending. He didn't want a beat fade-out. He wanted a wall of sound. Brion used a variety of synthesizers to create this shimmering, rising chord progression that feels like it’s pulling the listener upward. It’s overwhelming. It’s beautiful. It’s also incredibly loud if you’re wearing headphones.
Mac actually posted a video of this specific synth part on his Instagram Story the night he passed away. That’s why the song carries such a heavy weight for the fans. It was literally the last thing he shared with the world.
Decoding the Lyrics: More Than Just a Vonnegut Reference
There’s a lot of "Mac-isms" in this track that people miss. Take the line: "Well, this is the special edition, you know what I mean?"
On the surface, it sounds like he's just talking about the album. But knowing Mac, he was likely talking about his life. He felt like he was living a version of reality that was "extra." He was doing things differently. He wasn't following the standard rapper trajectory of cars, money, and bravado. He was talking about his soul.
- The "Circle" Imagery: He mentions circles constantly. This would later become the title of his posthumous album, Circles.
- The Concept of "Swimming": The whole album is about the struggle to stay afloat. So it goes mac miller is the moment the swimmer stops fighting the current and just lets the water take them.
- The Vocal Delivery: Notice how his voice is slightly distorted. It’s not crisp. It sounds like he’s calling out from another room.
The production by Mac (under his Larry Fisherman alias) and Vinylz provides this thick, murky atmosphere. It’s jazzy but modern. It’s something that could only have come out of that specific era of his life in Los Angeles.
The Cultural Impact of the Song Today
It’s been years, and yet so it goes mac miller still trends every time someone talks about "perfect album closers." Why? Because it’s authentic. We live in an era of hyper-processed, AI-generated, or committee-written pop songs. This wasn't that. This was a guy in a home studio pouring his anxieties into a MIDI controller.
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Musicians like Thundercat and Anderson .Paak have spoken about how Mac’s process changed during this record. He was becoming a composer, not just a beat-maker. You can hear it in the layers of this track. There’s a complexity there that rivals some of the best art-rock of the 70s.
Misconceptions About the Song
A big misconception is that this song was a "suicide note." That’s actually a pretty harmful and inaccurate narrative. People who worked with him, including his close friend and bassist Thundercat, have said Mac was in a great headspace during the release of Swimming. He was excited to tour. He was practicing.
So it goes mac miller wasn't a goodbye; it was an observation. It was him saying, "This is where I am right now, and whatever happens next, happens." It’s about the fluidity of life. If we view it only through the lens of his death, we miss the artistry of his life.
How to Truly Appreciate the Track
To get the full experience of so it goes mac miller, you really have to listen to the whole Swimming album in order. You can’t skip. You need to feel the frantic energy of "Inertia" and the funky hope of "What's the Use?" to understand why the stillness of "So It Goes" matters.
- Use High-Quality Headphones: The layering in the final two minutes is insane. There are tiny melodic flourishes that get lost on phone speakers.
- Read the Lyrics Alongside: Look at how he structures his rhymes. He’s not always rhyming words; sometimes he’s rhyming vowel sounds. It’s subtle.
- Watch the Tiny Desk Concert: While he didn't perform "So It Goes" on NPR, seeing him perform other tracks from the album gives you a sense of his charisma and the musicality he brought to this specific era.
The Technical Brilliance of the Composition
From a technical standpoint, the song uses a lot of "wet" reverb and delay. This creates a sense of space. In music theory, the way the chords resolve (or don't resolve) at the end creates a feeling of suspension. It’s called an open cadence. It doesn't land on a "home" note. It just keeps ascending until the sound cuts out.
That’s a bold choice for a hip-hop artist. Most rap songs end with a punchline or a heavy beat. Mac ended with an atmospheric synth wash. It showed his growth from the Blue Slide Park days. He wasn't "Easy Mac with the Cheesy Mac" anymore. He was a serious musician.
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Actionable Insights for Fans and Producers
If you’re a fan or a creator looking to learn from Mac Miller’s work on this track, here is how you can apply his philosophy to your own life or art:
- Embrace the "So It Goes" Mentality: In your personal life, learn to accept the things you can't control. Mac used this phrase to find peace in a chaotic world.
- Layer Your Work: If you’re a producer, look at how Mac used Jon Brion’s influence to mix "high-brow" orchestral elements with "low-brow" street beats. The magic is in the contrast.
- Don't Fear the Outro: Most people think listeners have short attention spans. Mac proved that if you make something beautiful enough, people will sit through a three-minute instrumental outro.
- Study the Source Material: Go read Slaughterhouse-Five. Understand why that phrase meant so much to him. It adds a whole new layer of depth to the listening experience.
- Support Mental Health Foundations: Mac’s family started The Mac Miller Fund. If his music helped you, consider looking into how they support young artists and those struggling with substance abuse.
The legacy of so it goes mac miller isn't one of sadness. It’s one of completeness. It’s the sound of an artist finally finding the exact frequency he wanted to broadcast on. It’s timeless because it’s honest. And in a world that’s constantly changing, that honesty is why we keep coming back to his music.
To fully understand his impact, go back and listen to the transition from "2009" into "So It Goes." It’s one of the most powerful 10-minute stretches in modern music. It tells a story of a boy who grew up, saw the world, got hurt, and finally learned how to just... be.
That’s the real takeaway. Life is complicated. It’s messy. It’s beautiful. And as Mac would say, so it goes.
Next Steps for Deep Listening:
Start by listening to the "So It Goes" outro at a high volume in a dark room. Focus on the individual layers of the synthesizer. Once you've done that, compare the production style to his earlier work like Watching Movies with the Sound Off to see the literal evolution of his sound design and emotional maturity. This contrast provides the best evidence of his growth as a composer.