The unfortunate and untimely death of rapper Mac Miller shook the world when news spread that he had passed from an apparent drug overdose.

Mac Miller’s career arc has been both fascinating and surprising. When he first burst into the mainstream with his 2010 mixtape, “K.I.D.S,” it was a very different Mac Miller from the one we are witnessing today. Back then, he was the party rapper who made dreadful songs about the man who is going to “make America great again.”

We don’t envy the task of the WILD director. Faced with a student body marked by diverging tastes and a budget too limited to afford an artist with ubiquitous appeal, each semester is a delicate balancing act between maximizing the headliner’s popularity, promoting genre diversity and finding a performer engaging enough to convert newcomers. This can amount to something of a zero-sum game.

Rapper Mac Miller will headline this spring’s WILD, Social Programming Board announced Sunday night.

Mike Posner assured us all we were cooler than him at my freshman WILD in fall 2011. And now we’re getting the latest white rap king: Mac Miller.