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“Just like a circle, I go back to where I’m from"

Just look at his career for a prime example of Mac Miller as a perfect circle. Every era and iteration of Mac Miller fed into itself. When the “frat rap” days of K.I.D.S. to Blue Slide Park came to an end, the musicality and introspective bars rose in their wake on Macadelic all the way to GO:OD AM. When tapping into the very essence of rhyming was not enough to capture Mac’s creativity, we stumbled into gorgeous jazz and love songs on The Divine Feminine. And when the love songs failed to house all Mac had lived through, we were gifted Swimming.

Mac doesn’t die at the end of Swimming; he returns to himself. He is at the center of every era he creates. He is his own shelter. The circle line also reminds us that Malcolm was pure, and he would always return to his roots. No matter the success he achieved, the fame or infamy, no matter what external circumstances plagued his life, he would always return to the music. Every song he released was better for this very reason. Ultimately, this line reminds us that Mac Miller was everlasting in every sense of the word. As he established on GO:OD AM, Mac Miller’s energy can never truly die.
– DJ Booth

“Good News” will be the the first single off the posthumous Circles, which Miller worked on before his death in 2018 as a follow up to Swimming.

I got big into Mac after his death was announced. I’ve never been into rap really, but something about his discography really sucked me in. There’s a depth to the production and just overall like… musical (and personal) journey in Mac’s music. I spent 2019 listening to mostly him. These days I’m big into God is Fair, Sexy Nasty (feat. Kendrick Lamar) (warning for NSFW lyrics. the song is about sex.)

All around I’m not sure how to feel about posthumous releases. I’ve heard most of the leaked music that has come out since Mac’s death, so in that sense, I’m excited to hear more from him (and music that is fully produced and finished). But it also feels somewhat morbid, like a constant reminder of his death. I’m looking forward to Friday nonetheless.

I finally listened to Circles the other day. I wanted to find time when I could just sit down and focus on the music but, well, that time has been hard to find recently. So I just listened to it, even though I was doing other things at the time.

Like any Mac project, it will take time for me to digest. I wasn’t overwhelmingly in love with anything on it right off the bat, but I still recognize it as an incredible turn from his early releases and a sign of the growth and aspiration that he unfortunately never got to deliver on. I’ll keep playing it for sure (even if it will take some time to adjust to a fully mastered “Circles” rather than the shitty leak I’ve been listening to up to this point).