Madlib Says He’s Finishing Up His Collaborative Album Featuring the Late Mac Miller
There’s potentially more Mac Miller music on the way. On Monday (March 28), revered hip-hop producer Madlib told Sway in the Morning that he’s finishing several projects, including a posthumous release with the late rapper.
“Right now, I’m finishing up the Mac Miller album, the Planet Asia album, and the Erykah Badu album,” he said while discussing his newly released joint project Liberation 2 with Talib Kweli. Sway then asked if Mac’s estate agreed to the completion of the project, which Madlib confirmed.
For years, rumors have swirled regarding the possible release of the collaborative effort between Miller and Madlib. In a 2019 interview with DJ Booth, Miller’s producer Theolonious Martin said the two recorded an entire project together and dubbed it Maclib. He also revealed that he had a song of theirs during Madlib’s set at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago that same year.
“[Madlib] just randomly plays a Mac Miller joint. And I turn to him, I’m like, ‘There’s more of these, right?’ He’s said, ‘Oh, yeah, there’s a whole album. Maclib,'” Martin said at the time. “If Madlib decides to bless the world with that project, he should.”
Clips of an unreleased song between Miller — who died in September 2018 — and Madlib titled “Shut the Front Door” surfaced in 2019, but were later scrubbed off the internet. The last Mac Miller album to be released was 2020’s Circles, intended to be the companion to his August 2018 Grammy-nominated effort, Swimming. Producer Jon Brion helmed the production for Circles; the album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 164,000 album-equivalent units, the highest opening week of Miller’s career.
Billboard has reached out to Miller’s reps for comment. Check out the clip of Madlib’s interview below.
Carl Lamarre
Billboard
