Forever missed! Fans took note when Ariana Grande‘s newest R.E.M. Beauty drop appeared to contain a sweet shout-out to Mac Miller.
“When you get the r.e.m beauty lip oil in ‘pickin petals’ and realize ari keeps dropping us little reminders of mac,” one beauty influencer and Arianator posted in a now-viral TikTok set to the duo’s hit 2013 single “The Way.”
While the duet served as the lead single off Grande’s debut album Yours Truly, the name of the lip serum is a reference to the late rapper’s opening guest verse, in which he playfully raps, “Say, I’m thinkin’ ’bout every second, every hour/ Do my singin’ in the shower, pickin’ petals off of flowers like/ Do she love me, do she love me not?/ I ain’t a player, I just …” (The song eventually peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, earning both Grande and Miller their very first top 10 hit of their respective careers.)
Billboard has reached out to Grande’s reps for comment.
Four years after they first recorded the song, the singer and rapper started dating in 2016, and later collaborated again on highlight “My Favorite Part” for Miller’s 2016 album The Divine Feminine. Ultimately, the couple were together until mid-2018, a few months before Miller died due to an accidental overdose.
Grande later paid tribute to Miller on Thank U, Next-era tracks such as “Ghostin” and the smash title track. On the latter, she even name dropped him in the first verse among her list of exes, singing, “Wish I could say thank you to Malcolm, ’cause he was an angel.”
Check out the fan speculation that Ari’s new lip oil is dedicated to Miller below.
