Honouring Mac Miller’s work and keeping his sound alive
Written by Ethan Schlabaugh
Credit: Clarke Tolton via www.rollingstone.com
Mac Miller, a.k.a. Delusional Thomas, Larry Fisherman, Larry Lovestein, Easy Mac and other personas, started creating music at an extremely young age. His work would produce multiple full-length albums, mixtapes and a plethora of unreleased music that is floating around out there.
2018 would mark the year that saw the release of Swimming, a project that Miller had been working on for a couple of years at that point. It would also be the year he tragically passed on. Luckily for fans, his family and the Warner Records label have kept his legacy going with the release of several posthumous projects.
Two Spotify exclusive tracks
Miller would do a session at the Spotify Studios in New York City in late August, just about a week after the release of his album Swimming. The tracks that Miller recorded were a version of his song ‘Dunno’ from the aforementioned album, and ‘Nothing from Nothing’ originally done by Billy Preston.
These two tracks would become the first set of songs released after his untimely passing, released exclusively on Spotify on November 28th, 2018, a little over a month after he passed. Billboard’s Michael Saponara, upon release, said: “Miller’s ‘Dunno’ live rendition finds him rooted in a more tender sonic as the somber instrumental focuses more on the piano.”
Mac Miller’s first posthumous album, Circles
Circles was being recorded alongside Swimming as a companion piece to that album, but wouldn’t end up being finished before Miller passed. Taking inspiration from a movie that drastically inspired a lot of Miller’s work, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Miller would bring Jon Brion on as a producer for both albums. The task of finishing the album would go to Brion later on.
Circles album cover
Miller’s family would post on social media announcing the album release date of January 17th and confirming that Circles and Swimming were “Two different styles complementing each other, completing a circle.” Brion also later revealed to The New York Times that both albums were meant to be part of a trilogy, with the third being a “pure hip-hop record”.
The reception for Circles was among the best any Mac Miller album had received, and it saw 10 of the 12 tracks chart on the Billboard Hot 100 upon release.
Mac’s posthumous features
It was a few months after Miller’s passing that his family approved of any tracks that had him featured on them being released. The first two major tracks would be ‘Time’ by Free Nationals and Kali Uchis, followed by ‘That’s Life’ by 88-Keys and Sia. Over the years, there have been more tracks from artists such as Dvsn, Ty Dolla Sign, Robert Glasper, Big L, Thundercat and more.
Previous works seeing re-releases
It hasn’t only been completely brand new work, as Miller’s estate decided to start re-releasing work such as his mixtapes K.I.D.S., Faces and I Love Life, Thank You. These would be dropped on streaming services and physical releases between 2020 and 2023.
K.I.D.S., Watching Movies with the Sound Off and GO:OD AM celebrated their tenth anniversaries, featuring a couple of previously unreleased tracks such as ‘Ayye’, ‘The Quest’ and ‘Royal Flush’ respectively. 2026 marks the tenth anniversary of his album The Divine Feminine and many are hoping to see a couple of unreleased tracks, with possible songs like ‘Fly Me to the Moon’, ‘Divine Love’ and more possibly seeing the light of day, officially.
Balloonerism finally being officially released
Balloonerism album cover
The most recent “brand-new” full-length album from Miller came in the form of 2025’s release, Ballonerism. Now to long-time fans of Miller’s, it's possible to have already heard this long before its official release through early leaks. The album was recorded around the creation of Miller’s 2014 mixtape Faces.
Much like anything that Miller has done, despite being recorded around the time of another project, Faces and Ballonerism don’t sound all that alike giving a completely different sound.
What might be next?
Through re-releases and new projects finally being released, Miller’s discography continues to grow and it seems like it is far from growing. As mentioned, each album has seen a tenth anniversary and it wouldn’t be shocking to possibly see that same treatment done for The Divine Feminine, Swimming, and possibly even Circles (maybe).
Searching through the internet can also pull up hundreds of unreleased tracks that Miller recorded throughout his life from different eras that could be released into its own albums, EPs or mixtapes in the future.
One worth mentioning is the Maclib album, a collaboration between Miller and famed producer Madlib, which was recorded between 2015 and 2017. Madlib has played a few tracks from the project over the years, but nothing has yet been officially released despite fans begging for it at this point.
It is something special to see the posthumous career of an artist taken care of in such a spectacular way. Whether these releases see an end soon or continue for years to come, it has been an amazing ride and has helped keep the spirit of Miller’s music going.