Chance The Rapper’s 2016 project, Coloring Book, was a critically acclaimed project that perfectly struck the balance between mixtape and album. The body of work earned the Chicago native a Grammy award for ‘Best Rap Album’ and was the first mixtape to enter the top ten of the Billboard 200.
The mixtape saw an epic lineup featuring the likes of Kanye West, Young Thug, Justin Bieber, and 2 Chainz. It also featured strong production from Kaytranda. The hip-hop and gospel fusion project was the emcee’s (real name Chancellor Bennett) following his highly successful 2013 Acid Rap mixtape.
Recorded in his hometown of Chicago, Bennett made the album while collaborating with Kanye West on the track ‘Ultralight Beam’ which appeared on his 2016 body of work Life Of Pablo.
In an interview with Yahoo! News, Bennett spoke about how, while living in LA, he fell in love with the music of gospel singer and rapper Kirk Franklin. Explaining how it influenced him with Coloring Book, Bennett stated, “When I was in Los Angeles, and I was living like crazy, and I had a really, really bad Xanax addiction.”
He continued, “I remember starting to feel like I wasn’t myself and I wasn’t doing something right. I don’t know what it was that made me start listening to Kirk again. I grew up in the church, but I didn’t really know how good Kirk Franklin was until I was in LA.”
After listening to Franklin, Bennett knew that was the direction he wanted to take with Coloring Book, unveiling, “When I started listening to that, I was like ‘Okay, this is what I need to be working on.’ It got me into a range of music, and understanding how chords work and not just how important pitch is, but how important tone is, and working with a lot of people.”
In an “Ask Me Anything” Reddit thread, Bennett was asked about his favourite track from Colouring Book. Revealing it was ‘How Great’, the emcee explained, “The setup, the children’s choir, JAY!!!!! My grandmother passed away a few weeks before we recorded, and my cousin Nicole sang How Great Is Our God, and it crushed me, a week later, I had her come to the studio. Recorded her, and Francis did his harmonizer thing. It’s so close to my heart.”
You can listen to ‘How Great’ in the video below.
