''Balloonerism'' is the seventh studio album by American rapper

Mac Miller Malcolm James McCormick (January 19, 1992 – September 7, 2018), known by the stage name Mac Miller, was an American rapper. He began his career in Pittsburgh's local hip hop music, hip hop scene in 2007, at the age of 15. In 2010, he signed ...

. It is his second posthumous album since his death in September 2018. Miller recorded the album in 2014, around the time his mixtape ''

Faces The face is the front of the head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental deformities may affect the ...

'' was released. The album was released on January 17, 2025, under license to

Warner Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...

, exactly five years from the release of his first posthumous album ''

Circles A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. The distance between any point of the circle and the centre is called the radius. The length of a line segment connecting t ...

'', and features guest appearances by

SZA Solána Imani Rowe (born November 8, 1989), known professionally as SZA ( ), is an American singer-songwriter. Known for her diaristic lyrics and genre explorations, she has been credited as a prominent figure in influencing contemporary R& ...

and his

alter ego An alter ego (Latin for "other I") means an alternate Self (psychology), self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or true original Personality psychology, personality. Finding one's alter ego will require finding one's other ...

Delusional Thomas.

Background

''Balloonerism'' was teased on November 16, 2024, at Camp Flog Gnaw with an animated trailer. Days later, on November 21, Miller's estate formally announced the album on social media. They released a statement that the album had great importance to Miller, and that he had commissioned artwork for the album and regularly had discussions concerning its release prior to his death. Familiarity of the project within his fanbase, due to unofficial versions circulating online for years, contributed to the decision to release the project in an official manner. The album was recorded in 2014, around the time Miller released his mixtape ''

''. The cover art features a painting of Miller by artist Alim Smith. ''Balloonerism'' was released by

on January 17, 2025. A short computer-animated film based on the album and directed by Samuel Jerome Mason was also released the same day on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

Critical reception

''Balloonerism'' was met with positive reviews. At

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 77, based on ten reviews.

Track listing

Notes * indicates an additional producer * "DJ’s Chord Organ" and "Rick’s Piano" features uncredited vocals by Josh Berg * "Friendly Hallucinations" contains a sample of "Just Rhymin' with Biz" performed by

Big Daddy Kane Antonio Hardy (born September 10, 1968), better known by his stage name Big Daddy Kane, is an American Rapping, rapper, producer and actor who began his career in 1986 as a member of the Juice Crew. He is widely regarded as one of the most influe ...

and

Biz Markie Marcel Theo Hall (April 8, 1964 – July 16, 2021), known professionally as Biz Markie, was an American rapper, singer, songwriter, DJ, and record producer who gained prominence during hip hop's golden age. He was particularly recognized for ...

* "Stoned" contains a sample of "

Buffalo Gals "Buffalo Gals" is a traditional American song, published as "Lubly Fan" in 1844 by the blackface minstrel John Hodges, who performed as "Cool White". Whilst the song is often attributed to John Hodges it is likely to have a history that pre-dat ...

" performed by

Malcolm McLaren Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English fashion designer and music manager. He was a promoter and a manager for punk rock and new wave bands such as New York Dolls, Sex Pistols, Adam and the Ants, and ...

and

the World's Famous Supreme Team The World's Famous Supreme Team was an American hip hop radio show duo and recording group active from 1979 to 1991. The original members were Sedivine the Mastermind (Larry Price) and Just Allah the Superstar (Ronald Larkins Jr.). Career The g ...

Personnel

– lead vocals, percussion (track 1), drums (track 6, 9, 11), recording engineer (track 13) * Thundercat – bass (tracks 2, 4–6, 9, 11, 13, 14), additional vocals (track 2) * Taylor Graves – keyboards (tracks 3, 5, 6, 9, 11), drums (track 5), background vocals (track 8) * Jameel Bruner – keyboards (track 4) *

Ronald Bruner Jr. Ronald Ray Bruner Jr. (born October 5, 1982) is an American drummer, composer and producer. He has played with hardcore punk/crossover thrash band Suicidal Tendencies. Bruner was part of the band that received a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary ...

– drums (track 4) *

– vocals (track 2, track 5) * Ashley All Day – additional vocals (track 6) * Dylan Reynolds – additional vocals (tracks 12, 13), guitar (track 13) * Josh Berg – recording engineer * E. Dan –

mixing engineer A mixing engineer (or simply mix engineer) is responsible for combining ("mixing") different sonic elements of an auditory piece into a complete rendition (also known as "final mix" or "mixdown"), whether in music, film, or any other content of a ...

Mike Bozzi Mike Bozzi is an American mastering engineer at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood, California. He won a Grammy Award for Record of the Year for mastering Childish Gambino's " This Is America", and is a six-time nominee for the Grammy Award fo ...

–

mastering engineer Mastering is a form of audio post production which is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the Audio mixing (recorded music), final mix to a data storage device called a master recording, the source ...

Charts

References

{{Mac Miller 2025 albums Mac Miller albums Albums published posthumously Warner Records albums