Never liked his music but always respected the person. I was in Pittsburgh through his whole rise, and it's not a big town, so I'd see his brother around from time to time, decent enough guy. Have a lot of friends who went to school with him. Really weird to relate to a celebrity death in this sorta way.
Little nugget that I think is a testament to his hustle: I went and saw Big KRIT, Freddie Gibbs, and Smoke DZA in like 2011. During his set, DZA brought Mac out for a couple songs and the crowd went nuts...stage right you could see Gibbs meanmugging like "who the hell is this little brat." A couple years later, Mac and Gibbs were making songs together, and Fred was rapping on beats Mac made.
As a goofy-grinned kinda-rich white kid from the 'Burgh, he had to fight pretty hard to get his respect in the rap world. And he worked and earned it. This is sad.