The estate of Mac Miller has approved the release of a long-awaited EP put together by MadLib and the late rapper.
The producer and DJ spoke of the unreleased record to “Sway In The Morning” on March 27, while he and Talib Kweli were promoting their new joint album “Liberation 2.” Madlib told Sway that he was in the process of finishing several projects, including an EP with the late rapper, as well as a record 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.” He also confirmed that Miller’s estate was in support of the release.
Miller also posthumously appears on “Liberation 2” alongside featured guests Q-Tip, Westside Gunn, Roy Ayers and Jamie Branch, among others.
The EP, nicknamed “Maclib,” was first mentioned in 2019 by Chicago producer Thelonious Martin in an interview with DJBooth where he briefly nodded to its existence. The excitement of Miller’s fans grew so loud that Madlib issued a statement confirming the project was real, but there were no plans in place to release it.
According to a 2019 article by Fader, the statement recalled that Miller and Madlib began working together after the late rapper recorded a verse for Freddie Gibbs and Madlib’s “Piñata.”
“By early 2015 Mac had batches of Madlib’s beats and was recording songs,” the now-deleted statement read. Miller would then send those songs back to Madlib, who would often play them during his live DJ sets. Clips of those songs circulated on the internet in the time that followed but they can no longer be found online.
The last album Miller released before his death in 2018 was his fifth album, “Swimming,” which went on to be nominated for best rap album at the 2019 Grammy Awards. His estate posthumously released “Circles” in 2020.
