Mac started working on the project before his death as it serves as a companion piece to Swimming. The rapper never had the chance to complete his project but Jon Brion, the album’s producer, took on the task of completing it as accurately to Mac’s vision as he can. 

“He had been working with Jon Brion, who after hearing some early versions of songs, cleared his calendar to help Malcolm fine-tune them,” a statement from Mac’s estate wrote upon the announcement of Circles. “After his passing, Jon dedicated himself to finishing Circles based on his time and conversations with Malcolm.”

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Jon Brion discussed working on this project including s

“I believe there are,” Brion said. “Somebody just told me something about that, some kerfuffle,” he continued. “I mean, that was a pre-existing track. There were a few songs the family gave me that he’d been working on independently that I thought fit thematically with what we had worked on. ‘I Can See’ was one of those… I played some things on those tracks to make them feel like the others, but those vocals were already there. It wasn’t like an executive decision or anything.”

Peep the full interview here.