“Star Line Gallery”, the title of Chance The Rapper’s new album, has a deep meaning.
Chance The Rapper Explains “Star Line Gallery”
As the Chicago rapper explained recently to Sway in the Morning, his upcoming record is named after Jamaican political activist Marcus Garvey. Garvey started a shipping company in 1919, connecting countries around the world.
Chance explained, “I was inspired by Marcus Garvey in the early 1900s, 1919 through actually 1922, so 100 years ago now”. “He started and ran this very important, integral shipping line. He had a fleet of ships, these giant ocean liners the size of cruise ships, which he owned and funded with common Black folks’ money.”
“But what he did was create a trade route between the US, the Black islands, and the continent of Africa. That created a network of people where people from all over the world were interconnected. Working with each other and taking trips together, and created this connectivity that didn’t exist before.”
Despite the US shutting down Garvey’s shipping line three years later, he inspired Ghana’s first president and generations to follow. He went on to say, “It was intentionally shut down but the U.S. government in 1922, but it inspired so many other things”. “So how I was just talking about Ghana being the first independent Black nation in Africa.”
“Their first president happened to come to the US when he was still in college and went to an HBCU. He learned about Marcus Garvey, and when he came back, he instituted all that knowledge he learned into the country. It quickly became its own thing. It’s literally an unstoppable thing”.
“When I think about the Black Star Line and all the spaces that it’s been in, the Black Star is the representation of Ghana, in their flag, in the fabric of how their country was set up. They believe in global Blackness, Black connectivity and a free Africa.”
Chane The Rapper added, “So we gotta just continue to follow their movements, like the things that he was talking of was so [groundbreaking]. Like, the idea of the decentralized dollar of having one currency across the continent. That come out of the dude in 1957, like he literally wrote the book on it. When he said it, they called him a communist, called him crazy, and now we got the Euro in Europe. But we still can’t seem to get our dollar to be one thing.”
More On Chance’s New Album
Sway confirmed the album’s name during their conversation, even though Chance The Rapper hasn’t publicly announced it. Earlier in June, he alluded to the title in a tweet. Referencing his recent singles, “The Heart & The Tongue,” “The Highs & The Lows,” “A Bar About a Bar,” and “Child of God”.
Star Line Gallery 📓🎥🖼 The Heart & The Tongue Child of God A Bar About A Bar The Highs & The Lows – – – – – – – – – – – – 🛳 🏛 🔓 🥷
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) June 17, 2022
The Big Day, Chance The Rapper’s 2019 album, debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, despite lukewarm reviews. Star Line Gallery is next in line to be released.
Also, the title shares its name with a festival that Chance and Vic Mensa will be hosting in Ghana early next year. In January 2023, Accra’s Black Star Square, also called Independence Square, will host the Black Star Line Festival.
