Review of the Month, September: The Divine Feminine by Mac Miller
October 25, 2016
In the closing track of his 2015 album “GO:OD AM,” Mac Miller philosophizes over a conservation with God, whom he addresses as a woman. So it is no surprise that less than a year later, when Miller dropped his next project, that project was titled “The Divine Feminine.”
Miller dropped the romantic concept album back in September, on the heels of its funky lead single “Dang!,” on which Miller is assisted by a stellar guest-appearance from the soulful Anderson .Paak.
When .Paak exclaims, “Dang!” in the song’s hook, he introduces the light-hearted frustration that reverberates throughout the album’s ten tracks.
In a rap game that, admittedly, has not evolved much from “B***** Ain’t S***,” it sounds somewhat odd to find one of the genre’s most egotistical voices lamenting so openly, “Can’t concentrate you’re always on my brain / If it’s love then why the f*** it come with pain?”
But Miller has long been rap’s hopeless love poet. Even since his brash days of childish frat rap in “K.I.D.S.” and “The High Life,” for every shotgunning party anthem there was also a more sensitive tune about lost love, long distance relationships, or all the regretful pitfalls of romance.
But this is not the same lovesick Miller from the mixtapes of his teenage years. Mac is 24 now, and both his lyricism and production skills have flourished into adulthood.
“The Divine Feminine” could have held its own as a strictly instrumental album, as Miller continues to help lead the charge of jazz rap fusion into the mainstream. Miller shows his knack for flowing over groovy, funk-inflected beats on “Dang!” and “We,” where he is joined by the always velvety CeeLo Green.
Miller’s other guests on the album also deliver, as Bilal, Kendrick Lamar, and Robert Glasper give solid additions to featured tracks. Additionally, Miller recruited a horn section from Juilliard for “Dang!” and trumpeter Keyon Harrold for “Stay,” whose solos give a Donnie Trumpet-style accent to the laid back love ballad.
Miller displays his own production chops as well, co-producing several tracks, including the downtempo West Coast funk jam, “My Favorite Part,” where Miller humbly shares the mic next to pop powerhouse Ariana Grande to deliver an awkward, but irresistibly likeable duet.
Lyrically, as you might guess from the album’s title, “The Divine Feminine” follows a much different narrative than the anti-sensitive, care free attitudes towards romance that have always been the vogue of hip hop (see “99 Problems”). However, Miller’s album is not the progressive, anti-misogynist concept album that its title might suggest, as hypersexual lyrics and effects often blur the lines between Miller’s philosophical intentions and his own lust.
Though Miller is susceptible to the occasional brash line about his lusty vices, he never strays far from his hopeless romantic side. In fact, on “The Divine Feminine,” Miller always seems hopeless, like when he repeatedly begs, “Won’t you stay, just a little while, babe?” over the drawn out chorus of “Stay.” Kendrick Lamar adds more a poetic depiction of love’s hopeless side in the album’s final track: “Heart to my dying light / Bullet to your rose / I watch your petal fold.”
That is what makes “The Divine Feminine” so unique: while Miller paints himself as the protagonist in his love life, he makes it tragically clear that he stands powerless to its whirlwind of confusion, and the women who surround it. In a way, Miller’s starkly weaker singing voice next to Grande’s on “My Favorite Part” fits the album’s narrative perfectly: though Mac tries to keep pace with the lady by his side, he obviously lags in the presence of a higher power.
But he’s happy to keep up the chase. And that’s good news for the rest of us, while lyrically “The Divine Feminine” is not an improvement from “GO:OD AM,” it contains some of Miller’s most sophisticated work to date, both sonically and ideologically. Miller’s journey through the world of love is not always a pleasant one, but his perspective makes it fun to ride along.
