There's no disputing Mac Miller's work ethic. Earlier today (March 23), the 2011 XXL Freshman released his seventh mixtape, Macadelic, which features "The Question"—a collaboration with Lil Wayne. XXLMag.com caught up with Mac to get the low down on the track.—As told to Carl Chery (@cchery)

The record with Wayne and I happened, which is crazy is called “The Question.” I was working on the mixtape and I’ve never been one to reach for collabs or try to get collabs or hit people up or whatever, but I heard the record and I was makin'… I was makin' a mixtape and I was like, "I wanna get Wayne on this shit." It didn’t sound crazy to me. Like, "I wanna get Wayne on this shit, like I really want to and I’ma try." Mack Maine and I are real cool when Wayne came to Pittsburgh, I came to the show and was watching backstage and they showed me love. Karen Civil, gotta shout out Karen Civil ‘cause that’s just my homie and she was like, “Yea, do it." And she’s close with them.

I made this record and when I was thinking about the record I wanted to get him on, I didn’t want to get him on some club record or some swagged out record, like, me talking shit and be like, “Yea, muthafucka, I got money, I’m successful, you know have Wayne come in. I wanted to do some introspective shit. I wanted to do some real shit with him. I wanted to make a song that can do somethin' in the world. Kinda when I made the song with Bun. Me and Bun made a song that had a meaning to it. That’s what I wanna do with Wayne, so I made this record called “The Question.” It was this one night we were in Cali and I was doing this record and it was coming out crazy and Jimmy came up to me and was like, “Yo, this is the one for Wayne." Yo, how you gon tell me that before I do my second verse? Now I’m all like sitting there, like, "Fuck." So I write the second verse. [It] comes out crazy.

I hit up Mack. I’ma clear this out, like, Wayne and I weren’t in the studio together, but I heard that he fucks with me. People told me that Wayne fucks with what I’m doing. So I hit up Mack and I was like, "Man, I don’t want to bug you about being some dude coming at you for a Wayne verse. I’m sure people do all the time, but do you think Wayne would get on this record I have. And he was like, “Yea, man. It’s all love.” Mack was like, “I love it. I’ma play it for him." I was like, “You know, it’s Wayne. He’s big as hell, why would he do a record with me. He’s gonna hear it and be like, “Aight, cool, whatever.” But I told them the release date I had. I told them I need it by the 21st and he was like, “Aight, I got you. The other night, Mack text me, he’s like, “Yo, I need you to do a show, man. What’s your email? I need to send you like some info." I texted him my e-mail. And then an e-mail popped up and it was YMCMB and I was like, “Oh shit.”

He sent me the file, the session, like without a bounce in it. So I’m sittin' there tryin' to open up, you know, they password protect the fuck out of it, it’s like impossible to get open. So, I’m on my computer, late as hell, tryin' to open it up, but there’s no bounce in there so I couldn’t hear his verse. But, I had it there, so I took all the audio files, took ‘em in the garage band myself and mixed it down myself just so I can hear it. I twas kinda surreal for me to hear a raw verse not mixed down just like the vocals. Him being like, “alright there,” for the punches and shit . So, yea, I put the shit together and listen to it and now he’s on the shit, man. I’m grateful for that and I really appreciate that love from them.

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