Album of the Week: Chance The Rapper dominates with ‘Star Line’
Chance The Rapper has been through a lot over the last six years. The Chicago MC released his last album, The Big Day, at a time when he was experiencing the joys of being newly married. The project was criticised for that very reason, but also due to the sound of some tracks on the album, like ‘How Shower’, which some just couldn’t take seriously.
Since then, he’s gone through a divorce from his longtime partner, Kirsten Corley, with whom he shares two children, Kensli and Marli. The big life change, coupled with the response to his last project, has allowed him time to reflect and reassess what he wants out of a body of work, resulting in his long-awaited new album: Star Line.
Released on August 15th, Chance’s new project comprises 17 songs with a bucket load of features. He keeps things close to home with guest spots from Do or Die, Jamila Woods, BJ the Chicago Kid, BabyChiefDoit, Vic Mensa, and Smino, while also recruiting Joey Bada$$, Young Thug, TiaCorine, Lil Wayne, Smino, Lion Babe, Jay Electronica, and Jazmine Sullivan.
The album features the singles ‘The Highs and the Lows’ and ‘Tree’, which samples India Arie’s classic 2001 song, ‘Video’. Chance has stated that the project is “steeped in travel and personal change, incorporating different life lessons, experiences, and sounds he encountered over the past several years”.
The title of the album, Star Line, was inspired by Jamaican political activist Marcus Garvey, who launched a shipping line in 1919 and connected countries across the world. “I was inspired by Marcus Garvey in the early 1900s—1919 through 1922—so 100 years ago now,” he said on Sway in the Morning. “He started and ran this very important, integral shipping line. He had a fleet of ships, these giant ocean liners, which are the size of cruise ships, that he owned and funded with common Black folks’ money.”
He expanded on the lore, adding how the trade routes became essential, “But what he did with it was he created a trade route between the United States, all of the Black islands and the continent of Africa, and that created a network of people where people from all over the world were interconnected and working with each other and taking trips together, and created this connectivity that didn’t exist before.”
The album cover was designed by Brandon Breaux, who was behind the fellow portrait covers of 10 Day, Acid Rap, and Coloring Book. Like all of Chance’s projects, there’s a variation of sounds. From the soulful ‘No More Old Men’ to the hard-hitting ‘Drapetomania’ to the Black American story of ‘The Negro Problem’, the rapper seems to be covering all grounds.
When people suggested he fell off after The Big Day, he stated, “I think that’s a narrative that people want to push or stand on for some reason. But it still stands that I’m Chance The Rapper. There’s literally only one Chance The Rapper that ever did it like this. And that’s not just in rap. That’s period.” Now, Star Line is his chance to prove people wrong.