At the festival organized by Tyler, The Creator the audience could see a 2.5-minute announcement of the upcoming posthumous release Mac Millerwhich has been sitting in a drawer for 10 years. The material in the form of a short animated film was presented between the performances Samphy and The Alchemist. At the end of the video, the words “coming soon” and the album cover appeared.
The abstract painting that serves as the cover of the new publication was created by the artist Alima Smithandwho shared a very similar work on his Instagram in 2018, and Mac commented: “I need this.”
Material for “Balloonerism“was supposed to be created in 2014, just before the release of the beloved”Faces“. Mac’s friend and former tour manager mentioned the album in a 2021 book.”The Book of Mac: Remembering Mac Miller“: “Mac and Josh (Berg) were locked in the lower studio (Mac’s house in Los Angeles). They prepared very crazy, otherworldly, strange creations. They really stood out at the time and people loved it. There’s an album called Balloonerism that was probably made before ‘Faces’. Many of them were supposed to be included in ‘Faces’, and ‘Balloonerism’ was supposed to be a separate one. There are a lot of albums from that period that were planned.”
The album will be Mac Miller’s second posthumous release after “Circles” released in 2020. The material recorded just before the musician’s early death was finished by the producer Jon Brion. “Circles” was a sequel to the rapper’s fifth album “Swimming” Together they created the dilogy “Swimming in Circles” dealing with Mac’s recurrent addiction and the problems that resulted from it. Miller died in September 2018 at the age of 26 of a drug overdose.
At the moment, the release date and tracklist of “Balloonerism” are unknown.