In mid-September, the new music video for Mac Miller‘s “Colors and Shapes” landed, and now streaming services have now finally bestowed the fans with the reemergence of the emcee’s Faces mixtape, marking the widely acclaimed collection’s appearance on all major music platforms for the first time.
Carving out a more defined space for himself after his debut full-length, Blue Slide Park put him on the map, Miller gathered some of hip-hop’s most creative forces, namely Thundercat, Schoolboy Q, Vince Staples, Earl Sweatshirt, and more, to join him in his reimagined pool house studio. These uninterrupted sessions turned into what would become Faces—a monumental 25-track expression of what remains a messy portrait of the time spent in Miller’s studio, famously dubbed The Sanctuary.
With its walls illuminated in a dark, distinct red light, it’s impossible to understate the sentiment that The Sanctuary held. Apart from informing listeners that “The Sanctuary was the most important thing that ever happened to [him],” Miller shares on Making Faces, the short film accompaniment to the project’s reissue, “It felt like it was my own world, I felt like I could really grow into myself creatively, and find myself through the music I was making.”
Released for free without the support of any major labels, the mixtape fared far better than anyone expected it to, eventually becoming an easy fan-favorite from the late Pittsburgh producer. “You can see brush strokes of it,” says close friend and frequent collaborator, Thundercat, drawing parallels to the eccentric and at times chaotic manner in which the tape was created. He continues,
“A lot of the time, you have storytellers in rap, you have people who can tell stories or a person who can tell you their story, but it’s very rare that you have a person who can paint a picture for you. And painting a pretty picture doesn’t mean that it makes you feel pretty.”
Stream Faces below, and find the vinyl edition here.
Featured image: Clarke Tolton
