After an impressive run in the mid-2010s, Chance The Rapper’s 2019 debut album The Big Day almost went unnoticed. Critics were quick to throw shade but now he has a message for the world.
Chance discussed the narrative that he “fell off” during an appearance on The Breakfast Club on Tuesday (August 2). He admitted the comments hurt but weren’t anything new.
Chance said, “To me, I can do one of two things: I can either agree with it or I can live my life”. “If I agree with it, then that means The Breakfast Club fell off, ’cause y’all don’t have people that fell off sitting in your chair usually.
“So I feel like, I gotta stay on my path. N-ggas was saying I fell off when I was in high school! … It is tough, but I don’t know. It’s like, what can I say? Tell people my feelings are hurt.”
Within the past 18 months, Chance The Rapper has reunited with former rap pal Vic Mensa. As well as grassroots musical projects in Ghana, they have collaborated on songs such as “Wraith” and “Shelter.”
As a result of this back-to-basics approach, Chance has been able to drown out the criticism and rediscover his passion for and confidence in his craft to a great extent.
Chance continued, “Man, when I get up with Vic and we just make shit, it’s so undeniable. I’m so good at rapping”. “At this point, I gotta put the words on the screen ’cause muthafuckas really loving that shit! It’s giving people goosebumps”.
“So I’m like, ‘I could listen to people that think about artists like they’re fucking Pokémon cards, like these commodified trading cards that’s like, ‘Oh, you’re fucking 2K rating just went down.’ Fuck them n-ggas! These n-ggas is lame as hell, they’ve never been on. If I fell off, at least I was on.”
Chano’s Big Comeback
An album inspired by Chance’s wedding in early 2019, The Big Day received mixed reviews from critics and fans alike. The former manager of Chance cited the “sub-par quality” of Chance’s album in a lawsuit over unpaid fees. Despite this, the album was still No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 108,000 album-equivalent units in its first week.
In 2022, Chance returned to prominence with “Child of God” and “The Highs & The Lows” featuring Joey Bada$$, early samples of a new album potentially.
Having performed their aforementioned collaboration at the 2022 BET Awards, Chano and Joey brought their collaboration to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday (August 1).
