Photo by Frank Hoensch/Redferns via Getty Images
Thundercat is gearing up to release his next album, It Is What It Is. His latest single, “Fair Chance,” is dedicated to the memory of his late friend and collaborator, Pittsburgh rapper Mac Miller. The LA musician co-produced the Ty Dolla $ign and Lil B collaboration with Sounwave and Flying Lotus.
On the chorus, Thundercat sings about struggling with Mac’s death:
I keep holdin' you down
Even though, you’re not around
So hard to get over it
I’ve tried to get under it
Stuck in between, it is what it is
Ty continues the track by expressing his own feelings about Mac:
Things will never be the same
Never be the same again
Everything so strange
It ain’t a game no more
We were just gettin' lifted
Yesterday, yesterday
Now we just reminiscin'
Meanwhile, Lil B raps about his own struggles:
No my heart is not broken
But I feel like it’s open
Please somebody do surgery
Tell the doctor come work with me
“This song is about Mac… when he passed it shook the ground for the artist community,” Thundercat said in a press statement. “Ty’s a strong dude and when he heard the song he knew exactly what it should be. I was there when he recorded it. We talked about what it was, and he did what he felt was right to it, and I love what he did.”
Earlier this month, Thundercat paid subtle tribute to Mac during a Jimmy Kimmel Live performance of his song, “Black Qualls,” by blending in the bass line from the rapper’s 2018 track, “What’s the Use.”
This isn’t the first time Ty has honored the memory of Mac alongside Thundercat. In August 2019, the R&B singer ran through a stripped-down rendition of “Cinderella," a fan favorite from the rapper’s 2016 album, The The Divine Feminine.
It Is What It Is arrives on Friday, April 3. It marks Thundercat’s first album since 2017’s Drunk.
Listen to the song above, and read all the lyrics to Thundercat’s “Fair Chance” featuring Ty Dolla $ign and Lil B on Genius now.
