After his performance recently at the Savannah Bananas game at Rate Field, Chance the Rapper, real name Chancelor Bennett, returned with a smile to his box seats, accompanied by family.
From there, the group headed to the Ramova Theatre, a venue in the Bridgeport neighborhood on the South Side part-owned by the rapper. Chance’s mother, Lisa Bennett, was walking in the back. She broke a brief moment of silence to exclaim, “God is good!,” to which everyone replied their amens.
For the Bennetts, it was more than a declaration of their Christian faith. It was a cry of relief and happiness for a night six years in the making.
Chicago-born Chance the Rapper released “Star Line” on Aug. 15, his first solo release since “The Big Day” in 2019. The latter LP had been poorly received. Chance himself even criticized the album, saying “I had a F-minus, but that’s behind us,” on “Star Line’s” intro track. The six-year gap wasn’t treated as a revamp, but rather a development.
“A lot of people see it that way because they’re used to watching things episodically, but the truth is things just continue to build forward,” Chance said in an interview with the Tribune. “I think of (‘Star Line’) as a huge growth and not really trying to rebuild anything or go back to anything.”
The morning after the album release, Chance shared a message with his fans on X. He thanked the fans for waiting, and thanked his team and family, the featured artists like Lil Wayne and Jazmine Sullivan, and “God’s unchanging hand.”
It was a side to the artist we haven’t seen before. He asked his audience to “imagine how scary it was to drop that.” I asked him if this was the first time he’s been unguarded with his fans in his career. He paused for a moment and hesitated slightly. He wanted to say yes, but his true answer was no. His vulnerability is what makes his music his.
“Every time that I’ve dropped a project, there’s an immense weight on me because I really care about making music. It’s not just that I love it, I really enjoy great writing and great music,” Chance said. “In the last minutes before (a project) comes out, I’m just thinking about how it’ll be received, how much people understand it and what changes I can make. Once it’s published, there’s a great weight taken off of you because it exists. People can have feelings, but they can’t change it.”
Sitting in the dressing room of the Ramova Theatre, north of his home Chatham neighborhood, he talked about earlier work such as “10 Day,” “Acid Rap,” the Lil B collaboration “Free” and “Coloring Book.” He stayed up late until 3 a.m. putting the finishing touches on each of these projects, he said, and “Star Line” was no exception.
“I think it’s my best lyrical work, my best production work, my most truthful work and in so many ways, my most important work,” Chance said. “I was really focused (on continuing) what I’ve always done, which is tell my own story, tell the stories that I want to tell and how I tell them. What I did with (‘Star Line’) was to present something new, not just new for myself, but something that doesn’t exist in rap.”
The idea for “Star Line” came back in 2020. His late grandmother gave him a book by James H. Cone, an author who writes about African-American theology and liberation. He learned about Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican activist and the founder in 1914 of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. The association celebrated African history and culture. Garvey created the Black Star Line, a Black-owned shipping line to transport passengers and cargo to and from Africa.
“Learning about the importance of his movement and how it has so much of an impact in the States and in Jamaica, there are countries that are founded on Pan-Africanism and Black Star and that was already really powerful to me,” Chance said. “It got validated once I went to Ghana for the first time and learned about (Gold Coast Prime Minister) Kwame Nkrumah, how much he had learned from Marcus Garvey and by being an international person. I started traveling more and around 2022 was when I was like, “This is the direction that I want to go.”
“Star Line” has been flooded with positive feedback and online comments since its release. The night of the album’s release, he had a pop-up performance in Ramova in front of a crowd of fans.
“(The reaction) had been beautiful (but) I think I’m also trying not to give as much weight to the internet,” Chance said. “What I’ve been focused on in the last few years is creating spaces for me and my fans to be together.
“When you do a little pop-up or a meet-and-greet and they can tell you about whatever their story was, whatever their moment was when they first heard you or their friend that put them on, the song that them and their mom danced to or whatever it is, you can’t get that out of a ‘like’ or a comment.”
His “And We Back” concert tour begins on Sept. 26 in Houston, and Chance has had some Chicago performances recently, saying that “It’s Chicago, so I’m here,” but his focus is on the cities where he hasn’t appeared in a while.
“Houston, New Orleans and some of the cities that I haven’t gone to in a long time, I’ve been thinking a little bit about maybe wanting to bring some local people out,” Chance said. “For the most part, they’re smaller and more intimate shows. (I’m) trying to figure out how to serve all the people that want to see something.”
The title to the “And We Back Tour” is a nod to the opening lyrics of 2016’s “Coloring Book.”
So, is Chance the Rapper back, or has he always been here?
A long pause.
He mentioned a word from the Bible that isn’t mentioned much, but was a driver for “Star Line.”
“Shone,” meaning divine glory. It’s a reference to the story of Moses, and how followers said that his face was shone as he spread God’s message.
“If anybody’s saying that I’m coming back, they have to admit that my face is shone.” Chance said.
He returned to the lobby where his friends and family sat. Raising his arms, he told them “Now it’s time to party.”
A deserved celebration. One that was six years in the making.