Mac Miller’s “lost” and second posthumous album, “Balloonerism,” was released by his estate on Jan. 17. According to Miller’s engineer for multiple years, Josh Berg, the album was “almost completely done within the first two weeks of March 2014” and mostly recorded in a week-long jam session. However, its release was postponed as his 2015 album, “GO:OD AM,” ultimately took precedence.
Miller’s estate has been a perfect example of how to handle a deceased artist’s unreleased or unfinished projects.
The estate only put out music that Miller clearly would have wanted to be released or albums that were already nearly completed.
The epitome of this phenomenon is Miller’s posthumous release of his sixth studio album, “Circles,” in 2020. This succeeded his fifth studio album, “Swimming,” and completed the concept that Miller envisioned: “swimming in circles,” a never-ending loop.
Following this, in 2021, the estate remastered his 2014 mixtape “Faces,” which is widely regarded as Miller’s magnum opus and one of the best mixtapes of all time. Then, they also remastered his 2011 mixtape titled “I Love Life, Thank You,” released in 2022. He released both of these mixtapes, which showed his desire for these mixtapes to be out in the world. Thus, this justifies his estate releasing them commercially.
Penumately, the estate released a 10th-anniversary edition of Miller’s 2013 studio album, “Watching Movies with the Sound Off,” which included four bonus tracks.
Most recently, they released “Balloonerism,” exactly five years after Miller’s first posthumous release in 2020. It is believed that “Balloonerism” will be the last album released by Miller’s estate.
There is a noticeable difference between the quality of Miller’s posthumous work and the work of other artists who have passed on. I believe that it boils down to the intention of their respective estates.
Think about it. Miller’s estate is solely run by his mother and brother. The majority of deceased artists’ estates are managed by their label and/or their label’s representatives. Which estate would inherently have better intentions with the artist’s music?
The family-run estate.
This is where the problem arises as the labels are focused on making money off of the artist’s work, regardless of its potential quality and whether the artist would have wanted to have the music ever released. Yes, labels are businesses, but there should be some level of respect given to the artist.
To make a profit, the labels are willing to scrap together tracks that were not finished and attempt to mix them to sound at least listenable. There are even instances where the number of posthumous studio albums outweighs the number of studio albums that were released when the artist was still with us.
This is where Miller’s estate is doing it right. They only mixed and released his music that was nearly or fully completed. There were even a few demo tracks that were on the leaked release of the album that the estate did not release. Also, they did not add featured artists in an attempt to generate more revenue. According to Berg, the “features” on the album were not truly features per sé, but due to Miller’s open-door policy for artists, they were simply coincidentally present at Miller’s Los Angeles home studio while Miller was recording this project. Miller then created multiple playlists from the jam session, titled it Ballonerism, and the rest is history.
The Miller Estate’s goal clearly is not to make money off of Miller’s art, but to preserve his legacy long after his death. The way the Miller Estate treats Miller’s music is admirable and should be the model for other estates of deceased artists. Diminishing an artist’s catalog for monetary gain is immoral and disrespectful not only to the artist, but also to their family and fans.
