Balloonerism was recorded around 2013-2014 between the releases of Watching Movies With the Sound Off and the mixtape Faces. According to since-deleted comments by E. Dan of ID Labs, the project was recorded during a week-long studio session, but Mac decided to move on to his Faces tape and ended up using some of the songs from the Balloonerism jam session on that project.
"[Mac] did make an actual track list (a few actually) [for Balloonerism] and pretty much all of the songs you all know as Balloonerism were made inside of a week stemming from what was basically jam sessions," Dan commented on Reddit. "He did indeed move on from it, took a few of the songs for Faces and never got back to it. [...] The project itself was a real thing in so far as Mac made a few iTunes playlists about it but it never got finished."
A version of the album leaked online in 2021. In March of 2023, producer Madlib announced during an interview on Sway in the Morning that he was putting the finishing touches on an upcoming Mac project. He did not give a lot of details but implied it was an unreleased album that was previously teased.
"Is that the same [Mac Miller] project that was mentioned years ago after he passed that was never released?" Sway asked. "So the estate is down now?"
"Yeah, they're down," Madlib replied.
On Nov. 17, during the final day of Tyler, The Creator's Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival, a trailer for Balloonerism was shown to concert attendees, revealing the album would get an official release soon. In the animated trailer, some kids and rodents embark on an epic journey with trippy visuals. The trailer is scored with the Balloonerism songs "5 Dollar Pony Rides," and "The Song That Changed Everything" featuring SZA.
The cover art for the album features an abstract painting of Mac Miller's face as a balloon being held by a dark figure.
The tracklist sans song titles has been uploaded to streaming platforms ahead of the album's release. The LP will feature 14 songs. It is unclear how many guest appearances will be on the project.
The new album is slated to be released on Jan. 17, 2025. It will be available in vinyl, CD and cassette formats.