Chance the Rapper The Big Day
Chance’s sprawling, 77-minute “debut” is an exuberant and often
wonderful celebration of love and family that struggles to bring depth
to his newlywed dad-raps.
Chance’s new album, The Big Day, pegged as his “debut” after three studio mixtapes, is a preordained coming-of-age spectacle. It’s full-fledged, 401k rap, a snapshot of the moment where the future starts approaching so fast it begins to look like now. “They don’t take teenage angst at no banks,” he raps on “We Go High,” invoking Michelle Obama’s famous line about what to do when “they” go low. It’s a flavor of righteousness that pervades the entire 77-minute album.
Though less thematic than his previous albums, the day in question revolves primarily around his wedding to longtime sweetheart Kirsten Corley. “The whole album has been inspired by the day I got married and how I was dancing that day,” he told Beats 1’s Zane Lowe. “Everything in it is all the different styles of music that make me want to dance and remind me of that day.” In an attempt to take the rap auteur baton from his mentor Kanye, Chance has curated these festivities to be eclectic yet holistic, emblematic of the guy who remixed the theme song to TV’s beloved “Arthur” and sampled the indie darlings Beirut. There’s an expansive list of guests: En Vogue and SWV, CocoRosie and Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, John Legend and gospel singer Kiki Sheard, Randy Newman and Shawn Mendes. For the most part, he wrangles them into a collective indicative of the Chance experience (the rapper co-produced every song on this project). There’s nothing that suggests he’s breaking character.
Chance’s new album, The Big Day, pegged as his “debut” after three studio mixtapes, is a preordained coming-of-age spectacle. It’s full-fledged, 401k rap, a snapshot of the moment where the future starts approaching so fast it begins to look like now. “They don’t take teenage angst at no banks,” he raps on “We Go High,” invoking Michelle Obama’s famous line about what to do when “they” go low. It’s a flavor of righteousness that pervades the entire 77-minute album.
Though less thematic than his previous albums, the day in question revolves primarily around his wedding to longtime sweetheart Kirsten Corley. “The whole album has been inspired by the day I got married and how I was dancing that day,” he told Beats 1’s Zane Lowe. “Everything in it is all the different styles of music that make me want to dance and remind me of that day.” In an attempt to take the rap auteur baton from his mentor Kanye, Chance has curated these festivities to be eclectic yet holistic, emblematic of the guy who remixed the theme song to TV’s beloved “Arthur” and sampled the indie darlings Beirut. There’s an expansive list of guests: En Vogue and SWV, CocoRosie and Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, John Legend and gospel singer Kiki Sheard, Randy Newman and Shawn Mendes. For the most part, he wrangles them into a collective indicative of the Chance experience (the rapper co-produced every song on this project). There’s nothing that suggests he’s breaking character.
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