Madlib Says He's "Finishing Up" Mac Miller Collab Album

BYAron A.Published on March 28, 20235.7K Views

LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 22: Rapper Mac Miller performs onstage at MTV's 'Wonderland' LIVE Show on September 22, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Dale Berman/Getty Images for MTV) LONG BEACH, CA - NOVEMBER 11: Producer Madlib performs onstage during the Tropicalia Music and Taco Festival at Queen Mary Events Park on November 11, 2017 in Long Beach, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)

MacLib is on the way.

The long-awaited MacLib album by Mac Miller and MadLib is officially on the way. Madlib joined Talib Kweli on Sway In The Morning to promote Liberation 2, which Mac appears on posthumously. The legendary producer revealed that he’s wrapping up MacLib right now, as well as with a project with Erykah Badu. “Right now, I’m finishing up the Mac Miller album, Planet Asia album, Erykah Badu album, different stuff,” Madlib said. “[Erykah and I] just started on an album … We have a lot of unreleased stuff.”

The fact that there are now plans to release MacLib is a full 180 from previous statements made by Madlib in 2019. A few months after Mac Miller’s passing, the Pinata producer explained that there were no definitive plans to release the project. “The song still doesn’t have an official title, and there are no official plans to release the EP,” Madlib wrote on Rappcats.com shortly after previewing one of their collabs during a DJ set. However, during the interview with Sway, he confirmed that Mac’s family green-lit the release of the highly-anticipated project.

The History Of MadLib: Mac Miller & Madlib’s Relationship

The news of the project’s existence first came to light in 2019 when Thelonious Martin detailed opening up for Madlib. “So I’m trying to focus and DJ, and Madlib gets on and 15 minutes into his set he just randomly plays a Mac Miller joint. And I turn to him, I’m like, ‘There’s more of these, right?’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, there’s a whole album. Maclib,’” Martin told DJBooth, though that was all we really knew of it at the time.

The two met when working on Freddie Gibbs’ Pinata, leading Madlib to send Mac Miller beats every once and a while. Over time, Mac would send records back, which eventually culminated into an “EP’s worth of music,” according to Madlib’s manager Eothen “Egon” Alapatt. “What exists is what the two had originally intended: an EP’s worth of music that was supposed to be the start of something,” Egon said in 2019. Hopefully, we’ll see the project drop in its entirety at some point this year. Stay tuned for more news on MacLib.

About The Author

Aron A.

Aron A. is a features editor for HotNewHipHop. Beginning his tenure at HotNewHipHop in July 2017, he has comprehensively documented the biggest stories in the culture over the past few years. Throughout his time, Aron’s helped introduce a number of buzzing up-and-coming artists to our audience, identifying regional trends and highlighting hip-hop from across the globe. As a Canadian-based music journalist, he has also made a concerted effort to put spotlights on artists hailing from North of the border as part of Rise & Grind, the weekly interview series that he created and launched in 2021. Aron also broke a number of stories through his extensive interviews with beloved figures in the culture. These include industry vets (Quality Control co-founder Kevin "Coach K" Lee, Wayno Clark), definitive producers (DJ Paul, Hit-Boy, Zaytoven), cultural disruptors (Soulja Boy), lyrical heavyweights (Pusha T, Styles P, Danny Brown), cultural pioneers (Dapper Dan, Big Daddy Kane), and the next generation of stars (Lil Durk, Latto, Fivio Foreign, Denzel Curry). Aron also penned cover stories with the likes of Rick Ross, Central Cee, Moneybagg Yo, Vince Staples, and Bobby Shmurda.