INTERVIEW: Mac Miller Talks New Album 'The Divine Feminine'

It's an exciting time for Mac Miller right now. He just dropped his brand new album The Divine Feminine, performed for an enormous crowd at The Meadows Music & Arts Festival, and is heading out on his new tour in support of the record. 

The Divine Feminine is Mac's fourth full-length studio album and was released on September 16th via Warner Bros. Records. The album, which has already reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums Chart and No. 2 on the US Billboard 200, includes ten new songs with features from artists like Kendrick Lamar, Ariana Grande, CeeLo Green, and more. So far, there have been three singles released from the album; the lead single "Dang!," followed by "We" and "My Favorite Part."

We caught up with Mac right after his performance at The Meadows in New York City, and he told us all about his new album. He opened up about the album title, the story behind the album cover art, how he chose which artists he wanted to collaborate with, and more.

[RELATED: The Meadows Music & Arts Festival 2016: 10 Top Moments]

On naming his album the The Divine Feminine:

"It's just my perspective on love and adoration towards a female ... that love story. There's just no negativity involved with it. There's pain, but there's not an angry breakup song or anything like that. It's just very sacred towards the female."

[Buy The Divine Feminine on iTunes] 

One thing fans might now know about The Divine Feminine is that the album's cover art is actually a photo taken by Mac's brother, who does most of the rapper's artwork. In fact, when Mac first saw the photo, he knew that was going to be his album art. He tells us that it "summed everything up."

On The Divine Feminine's cover art:

"I'm a very big believer in the universe existing within everybody. And so that was a part of the album, was the universe existing in this female that I'm talking to. And my brother actually took that photograph, and it's just a photo. Like the clouds, everything was just a photo that he took. I saw it and was like, 'wow that's it.' He was almost like 'no,' because he does all of my cover designs, and he [said] 'it's too easy,' and I [said] 'no, that's like exactly what I'm talking about.' It summed everything up, and I loved that it was a real photo."

There are a lot of songs that are special to Mac on The Divine Feminine, a few of them being his single "Dang!" featuring Anderson .Paak and his Ty Dolla $ign collab "Cinderella." 

On why "Dang!" and "Cinderella" are special to him

"I think 'Dang!' always holds a special place in my heart, just for being a song that made this project something to continue working on. I made that record, [and said] 'ooh, let's keep going.' And, 'Soulmate' is another one. I love that record. And then the second part of 'Cinderella' -- the whole journey of 'Cinderella' -- but mainly the second part of 'Cinderella' is my favorite moment on the album. It's just the most vulnerable. It's just me singing, and then how I made that song come together. It's just special."

Aside from Ty Dolla $ign and Anderson .Paak, The Divine Feminine also features a range of artists including Ariana Grande, Kendrick Lamar, CeeLo Green, Chicago singer Njomza, and singer/songwriter Bilal.

On how he chose which artists to collaborate with on The Divine Feminine 

"It was features that all happened so organically with people that are just in my life. With the Kendrick [Lamar] joint, I've been wanting to work with him again for a while. Because we did a song in 2012 a long time ago, but I didn't want to get him on anything that was just like 'Kendrick go rap.' He's incredible at that, but I wanted to do something different. And he's so brilliant with melodies as well and all that stuff. So, yeah, he killed it."