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Mac Miller’s ‘Balloonerism’ and the Moral Dilemma of Posthumous Rap Releases
Mac Miller's 'Balloonerism' signals the end of an era in posthumous releases for a generation, bringing up moral issues along the way.
This diverse collection of emcees reshaped how hip-hop sounded in their own specific ways, from the Soundcloud rappers bringing in pop-punk influences and Miller’s incorporation of jazz and live instrumentation, to Pop Smoke helping Brooklyn Drill reach the national stage. Posthumous releases are not limited to hip-hop, of course – 2024 alone saw projects from Sophie, reggae legend Lee “Scratch” Perry, and Johnny Cash – but rap feels uniquely connected to this issue because so many MCs have suffered untimely deaths under tragic circumstances at particularly young ages. Critics called the most recent releases from Pop Smoke and XXXTentacion, for instance, “disingenuous” and “haphazard,” and oftentimes the deeper someone’s unreleased archive is mined, the weaker the material ends up, with raw and unstructured songs being heavily tweaked to make the finished product.
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