The irony of music is the ability for people to say that emcees or musicians fall off. Art is a difficult partner. It can prevent madness or drive a person to madness. Finding the fine line between creative genius and attracting a mainstream following that will allow the artist to live is like seeing the lines in a painting after it’s been completed.
Chance has been labeled dead on arrival for a few albums now, but that demise was hasty and like any emcee, the resurrection is a self-created rebirth. Chance the Rapper drops his latest project the Star Line Gallery and without watching any videos or reading any reviews, I dove into the video for The Highs and The Lows, featuring Joey Bada$$ and immediately decided that Star Line is a reference to Marcus Garvey’s shipping company which was going to transport Africans in America back to the continent. Using this as a guide to understanding what Chance is doing, I think he is making a move back towards the center of Hip-Hop.
Chance is redefining the heart of the culture and bringing us elements and allusions to various images found throughout the culture. In the video, shot in Italy, every frame is a work of art. The allusion recalls videos by A Tribe Called Quest where actual frames are used to deliver moments that could be works of art. The lyricism here is elevated and the more spiritually aware Joey is less a counter to Chance and more of a balance. I haven’t listened to the album yet, but the interplay between Chance and Joey feels organic and as a lead to the new project, the other features will have a lot to live up to.
(Took a moment to browse videos from the project and every video is connected to a different visual artist. This is going to be a real work of art with a beautiful concept.)
