Mac Miller hasn’t disappeared since dropping his smoky lounge singer record The Divine Feminine in 2016, though he has gone quiet. That album uncovered a more abstract, sober side to Mac, as he switched bars for melodies and hazy introspection for cheesy romance. In addition, the self-destructive, gonzo party image that followed Mac had been replaced by a sober, almost wholesome hippie. (“Almost” because The Divine Feminine can be deliriously raunchy when regarding female anatomy.)
Many considered the loose concept album a loving ode to Mac Miller’s new muse, girlfriend and pop singer Ariana Grande, though he denied such rumors in interviews. Instead the album spoke to the nuances and in-between-ness of love and space in relationships. While the record garnered serious critical acclaim from the rap community, The Divine Feminine was the lowest-charting album of Mac Miller’s career, moving only 48,000 first week units.
All of which prompts the question of his next musical direction. Almost all of Mac Miller’s projects, including his various mixtapes and EPs under his Delusionl Thomas and Larry Lovestein aliases, share little sonic distinction, hopping between and around whatever genre fancies his current mood. With the recent release of Carnage’s “Learn How To Watch” which features Mac, some have speculated he may return to trap, like he did on his Macadelic mixtape.
But Mac Miller himself has offered little in clues. After dropping either an album or mixtape every year of his career (and sometimes multiple projects in the same year), he mostly rested in 2017. While he made guest appearances on other artists’ songs, he released no original music in the past 16 months with little explanation as to why.
Read on to see what Mac Miller’s been up to in his uncharacteristic absence.
Denouncing Donald Trump
Virtually every rapper has spoken out against the orange-tinted man currently presiding in the Oval Office, but few have directly answered for Donald Trump’s presence like Mac Miller. In almost every interview around and following the election, journalists have asked Mac to explain Trump. Mostly that’s his own doing, as his only platinum single as a lead artist is his early frat rap anthem “Donald Trump.”
Mac and Trump have publicly feuded over the song, with Trump publicly demanding (on Twitter, where else?) that he be paid compensation for his trademark name. Throughout his candidacy and election, Mac resurrected the feud and continues to blast the President’s lack of leadership. He still plays his song “Donald Trump” at concerts, but with a twist.
“He was, like, a symbol of money when I was younger. Now he's just a symbol of, like, ‘Hell, no!’ I still play it. It's a banger. It goes hard at shows,” Miller told Rolling Stone. “We change it up a little bit, like we say ‘Fuck Donald Trump’ at the beginning. It has never been an ode to him.”
Enjoying his love life
Though the rapper dismissed speculation that The Divine Feminine was all a reference to his girlfriend Ariana Grande, their appearances together have often shown just how smitten they are with one another. They made their public debut as a couple during the 2016 VMAs, and haven’t hidden the romance since. For Halloween they dressed as evil fashion mogul Mugatu and his henchwoman Katinka from Zoolander and visited Sukiyabashi Jiro of Jiro Dreams of Sushi fame while traveling in Japan.