Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
American artist Chancelor Johnathan Bennett aka Chance the Rapper drops his long-awaited album Star Line tomorrow.
The project tackles personal change and life lessons and marks the artist’s return since his debut release The Big Day (2019), themed on his wedding that year.
It drew harsh criticism from fans on social media, who considered it a downgrade from its preceding mixtapes.
The artist has since divorced his wife and Internet personality Kirsten Corley.
In an interview, Chance said the new album is inspired by his trips to Jamaica and Ghana and attending various art fairs around the world.
“Going to Ghana, reconnecting with a lot of my family, going through relationships changing, getting divorced – there are a lot of things that happened between my last project and this day,” he said.
“I think the sounds, production-wise, if they’re not super experimental, they’re based on some of the Black music that was influential to me throughout my childhood or through my travels.”
According to the artist, he was also inspired by Black Star Line, a shipping and passenger company that was started in 1919 by Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey for people of African descent.
“I was really inspired by his work and some of the ideas and opinions that he had, on us all being one people. So when I came to Ghana for the first time in January, I was already inspired by Marcus Garvey and Garveyism. I learned a little bit of family history regarding Garveyism and how it connected to their faith,” Chance added.
‘Garveyism’ refers to the body of thought and organisational activities associated with the namesake activist.
The album also marks a reunion between Chance and illustrator Brandon Breaux, who has created artworks for all of his other projects (except The Big Day).
