Madlib has provided an update on his joint album with the late Mac Miller while also teasing an upcoming project with Erykah Badu.
The legendary producer appeared on Sway in the Morning on Monday (March 27) alongside Talib Kweli to promote their new album Liberation 2. During the conversation, Madlib said he’s putting the finishing touches on the long lost Maclib project and has recently begun work on a full-length effort with Ms. Badu.
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“Right now, I’m finishing up the Mac Miller album, Planet Asia album, Erykah Badu album, different stuff,” he said.
He later added: “[Erykah and I] just started on an album … We have a lot of unreleased stuff.”
Madlib also confirmed that the Mac Miller album is the same project that was reported years ago and the late rapper’s estate has green lighted it.
Producer Thelonious Martin revealed the existence of a joint project between Madlib and Mac Miller in 2019.
“He had this Madlib album called Maclib,” he said during an interview with DJBooth. “I opened for Madlib in Chicago last summer at Pitchfork. So I’m opening for Madlib and about 15, 20 minutes left in my set, Madlib pulls up. Pete Rock walks up as well.
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“So I’m trying to focus and DJ, and Madlib gets on and 15 minutes into his set he just randomly plays a Mac Miller joint. And I turn to him, I’m like, ‘There’s more of these, right?’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, there’s a whole album. Maclib.’ What! What! He just kept moving on with his DJ set.”
He added: “If Madlib decides to bless the world with that project, he should.”
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The producer played unreleased music with Mac Miller on two other occasions that year: at a concert in San Diego and another in Queens alongside Freddie Gibbs.
Madlib’s longtime business partner Eothen “Egon” Alapatt previously claimed there was only “an EP’s worth of music” between Madlib and Mac Miller and that there were “no official plans to release the EP.”
“We’ve been getting a lot of questions about a collaborative album that Madlib and Mac Miller supposedly created,” he said at the time. “Here’s the real story: What exists is what the two had originally intended: an EP’s worth of music that was supposed to be the start of something.
“The end point wasn’t planned out or even discussed. The idea was to create for creation’s sake.
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As for his work with Erykah Badu, Madlib last collaborated with the R&B icon on her 2010 album New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh).
He also produced “The Healer” and “My People” from its predecessor New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) in 2008.
