Mac Miller’s Estate Previews “Balloonerism” On Our New “Fire Emoji” Playlist Update

Welcome back to our Fire Emoji playlist, where our latest update is here to take you through the best of the best new releases that hip-hop had to offer this week. We’d be remiss not to start off with one of 2025’s most anticipated projects. Mac Miller‘s estate has released the first single for his long-lost project Balloonerism, which is getting an official release next week (Friday, January 17) following a whole lot of leaks from this era in between 2013’s Watching Movies With The Sound Off and 2014’s Faces. “5 Dollar Pony Rides” is the first song that they teased from it upon its announcement, and its full version is incredibly soulful, warm, passionate, funky, and tender.

Moving along on Fire Emoji, we have WHAM (Extended Version) from Lil Baby, the deluxe version to his new album that adds even more heat to the tracklist. The easy standout here is “99” thanks to its bombastic and epic brass-led trap beat with rattling percussion, plus a pretty slick Future feature that matches Baby’s flow quite well. The latter has a bit of a different vocal tone and delivery that’s a bit more nasal than usual, and it packs a punch despite landing on a track with a pretty short runtime.

Elsewhere, Jack Harlow‘s previously released “Tranquility” is finally on streaming services, and thus makes an appearance on Fire Emoji this week. It is one of the Louisville MC’s most introspective, humble, and vulnerable cuts yet, a direction that the light piano and vocal samples – plus the crisp and minimal percussive pattern – indicates with ease and no pretenses. While there are some bars here and there that are open for misinterpretation, it’s compelling to hear a rapper engage with these themes.

Finally on Fire Emoji, we have the first two viral rap hits of 2025, which come from surprising corners for many listeners. First up is “Pink Dreads” from DDG and PlaqueBoyMax, whose atmosphere-heavy crashes and clap-led bouncy percussion can easily entrance you along with warbled vocal deliveries. Of course, we can’t forget “Tweaker” from LiAngelo Ball, G3 GELO, or however you want to call him. We’ve never felt 2006 this much since… Well, 2006. And it bangs.