Mac Miller has endured his share of criticism throughout his career – and honestly quite rightfully so.  The majority of his earlier catalog is simple fare, order dominated by generic frat rap topics (partying, pharmacy drinking, and a comical amount of shout-outs to his haters).  Regardless, he’s managed to carve out a niche for himself as one of the most popular white rappers around, while releasing one of the best-selling independent hip-hop albums ever, topping the charts with his debut album, Blue Slide Park.

Why Miller decided to move to California to take up experimental drugs and rub shoulders with hip-hop wonderkid collectives Odd Future and Black Hippy, who knows?  Was it the harsh panning his debut album received (most notably from Pitchfork)?  Was it a perceived lack of credibility? One thing that is for sure is that he emerged as a completely different artist.  His second studio album, Watching Movies with the Sound Off, is (shockingly) one of the most impressive hip-hop projects of the year – it’s experimental and unconventional, but phenomenal, as Mac abandons his party music in favor of shuddering cut-up soul samples and a Clams Casino-influenced airy atmosphere. Less Wiz Khalifa, more Jay Electronica and Ab-Soul.

But say what you like about his music – in any case, Mac Miller is one of the most talented performers in hip-hop, as his massively impressive, nearly 5-hour-long show in Boston’s House of Blues would attest.  His Space Migration Tour features an interesting setlist – it wasn’t too long ago that Mac Miller was filed away with the B.o.Bs of the hip-hop world, and now he’s leading a tour with some of the most highly regarded young rappers in the world.

Thankfully, the skills Mac has had his entire career (even when his music was bad) translate perfectly to a live stage.  Even his older, less-interesting work had Mac churning out quick lines over upbeat instrumentals – they might not be particularly interesting in terms of lyricism, but when performing,  his lyrics aren’t really an issue. No one at a show as fast-paced as Mac’s will be standing back thinking, Man, these lines are really lacking in the assonance department. In cycling through virtually his entire last album and nearly a dozen of his older hits, Miller put on a clinic on captivation for his opening acts.

But that’s not to say his openers acts were sub-par.  Vince Staples and The Internet’s opening sets did drag a bit, although this was mostly a result of the crowd’s unfamiliarity as opposed to their performance’s merits.  But Chance the Rapper was magnificent in exhibiting all of the enthusiasm and energy that he exudes in his music, darting and jumping and spinning across the stage, and even spiking his hat and discarding his shirt towards the end of his show.  He may only be coming off his second complete project, but he’s a rare performer who is able to shove his music up a couple notches live.  His lines hit harder, his absurd adlibs resonate further – Chance is a natural performer, even teaching the crowd his hooks and leading it in an acapella rendition of “Everybody’s Something.”

The last opener was Earl Sweatshirt, who’s gearing up to release his long-awaited debut album Doris in late August.  He performed with Staples as backup, going through all of his major hits while Staples jokingly goaded him in between to “do his old shit” (Earl’s nod to his well-documented dislike of his old work’s prominence).  Earl isn’t as talented a performer as some of his Odd Future counterparts (Tyler, The Creator comes to mind), but he was still very engaging as he exaggeratedly staggered across the stage in a bucket hat and an oversized white T-shirt.  He’s legitimately hilarious, cutting his set off midway to have the rest of the performers run on stage and dance to Kelis’ “Milkshake” several times (and having a few jabs at Mac in the process).  And yes, “Earl” and “Orange Juice” are even better live.  Earl’s voice may have dropped what sounds like a few octaves since his pre-Samoa days, but his Earl-era material hasn’t lost any of its oomph.

But Mac Miller stole the show.  Over a nearly two-hour set throughout which he constantly took swigs from a bottle of Jameson, Mac Miller played the drums, piano, and guitar (doing a solo on his knees behind his head), shouted at the audience to sit down for about five minutes so he and Earl could “try something new” (namely, rap Earl’s “Guild” sitting on the stage steps), pulled a James Brown by pretending to faint midway through “Watching Movies,” did a backwards somersault, and had his DJ rap a song.

He brought out three members of The Internet as a backing band, remixing nearly all of his songs to work with a live band to spectacularly dazzling results.  He rapped an entire verse acapella.  He did the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song.  He engaged the crowd almost constantly, even engaging in absurd call-and-responses (“I say Boston, you say Boston!”).  He announced to his band and the crowd that he was wasted, then proceeded to dance around the crowd more nimbly than I could sober.  Miller had the entire crowd bouncing up and down to strobe lights with “Watching Movies” and “Donald Trump,” and slowed it down with equal def control for “REMember” and “The Star Room.”

Mac Miller’s a remarkably talented musician – not only can he more than competently play at least three different instruments, he’s also a good singer, easily carrying songs like “Youforia” and “Objects in the Mirror” (at one point, he wryly joked about how much singing there was in his rap show).  It’s clear that the Pittsburgh rapper was having just as much fun as his Boston crowd, pausing the show to thank the city for his favorite show to date (the 2011 Boston Urban Music Festival, where Miller drew 50,000 for a free concert) and declaring that he’d perform until the venue kicked him out.

Mac’s behind two of the most popular hip-hop mixtapes ever, having risen to prominence just as the mixtape circuit heated up, and he’s already built up a powerful fanbase.  And as a result, it may be too late for Mac to reinvent his image. Just look at fellow frat-rapper Asher Roth.  He’s still atoning for “I Love College,” and that was just one song – Mac’s built up an entire career around the genre.  But it’s very easy to forget he’s is just 21.  He’s a talented musician and performer with an excellent second project under his belt, and he’s working with the right types of people.  Mac Miller is in a very, very good place.