Posted by Mac Miller tragically passed away in September 2018, but his legacy continues to live on through his music.
Following last year’s release of his posthumous album Circles, which he began working on as a companion to 2018’s Swimming before his untimely death, the Most Dope rapper’s team dug into his beloved discography on Friday (October 15) and brought his 2014 mixtape Faces to streaming services in its entirety for the first time.
The follow-up to his 2013 studio album Watching Movies with the Sound Off, Faces continued to chart Mac Miller’s evolution from “Donald Trump” frat rapper to an artist veering left and finding his feet through darker, more introspective lyrics and jazzy, psychedelic production.
While the original 24-song set — which included collaborations with Rick Ross, ScHoolboy Q, Ab-Soul, Vince Staples, Earl Sweatshirt and Mike Jones — remains in tact, Faces arrives on Spotify, Apple Music and co. with a brand new song in toe.
Titled “Yeah,” the five-minute track finds Mac singing existential blues over swelling, orchestral production from DJ Dahi and Frank Dukes. “Am I alive?/Am I aware?/Do you get high?/Are we prepared?/Then one day we’ll die/No one will care/Do you get high?/We will survive,” he belts out.
While the song sounds right at home among the dark, druggy themes present on Faces, it also serves as a precursor to Mac’s more melodic, singing-heavy material on follow-up projects such as GO:OD AM, The Divine Feminine and, of course, Circles.
Mac Miller’s ‘Swimming’ & ‘Circles’ Set To Get A Spotify Dissect
“Yeah” is already going down a treat with Mac Miller fans on social media. “The melodies in Mac Miller’s ‘yeah’ are so goddamn haunting. Hair rising goosebump music fam,” one fan wrote, while another hailed it as worthy of a James Bond soundtrack.
The melodies in Mac Miller’s ‘yeah’ are so goddamn haunting. Hair rising goosebump music fam. Ain’t a artist out there that could do what he did w music.
— Psych Jam Music™️ (@FuckPsychJam) October 15, 2021
I’m saying it now, “Yeah” by Mac Miller sounds like it belongs on a James Bond soundtrack #MacMiller
— Will Hamilton (@Wilba1820) October 14, 2021
yeah by mac miller. pic.twitter.com/sT6xSMQPVk
— cana ?? (@canahht) October 14, 2021
“Yeah” isn’t the only new Mac Miller material Hip Hop fans are being treated to this week. The late Pittsburgh rapper also has a posthumous feature on Young Thug’s new Punk album, appearing on the closing song “Day Before.”
“Mac was waiting to even hear these songs in full. He was so excited for these to come out,” Mac Miller’s manager, Quentin Cuff, tweeted after the song leaked in late 2018. “There’s one w Mac thug and gunna too.”
In other news, Mac Miller’s Swimming and Circles albums are getting a deep dive in the latest season of Spotify’s popular music nerd podcast series Dissect. Previously, the series has explored Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, Kanye West’s Yeezus and Frank Ocean’s Blonde among others.
“Two years in the making, it was an album that would stay true to the video central image of a man entrenched in his own psyche—observing, searching, scrutinizing,” said Dissect host Cole Cuchna. “It was an album that communicates a universal notion of seeking peace amidst the unrelenting currents of emotions. An album whose central symbol is water. The replenishing source of life that can just as easily pull you under.”
Stream Mac Miller’s Faces below.