After releasing The Big Day, Chance the Rapper stopped by Hot 97 to talk about how it all came together.
During the interview he revealed that everyone featured on the album except for Nicki Minaj came to Chicago to record and went deep into the significance of the album cover. He also weighed in on those top 50 rapper lists that have been circulating Twitter over the past month.
"Let's talk rappers, these top 50 lists went around people were pissed, people loved, people hated," Ebro said at the 5:15 point of the interview. "Did you put me on your list? I know you put out a list," Chance asked.
"Nah you didn't make top 50 yet," Ebro replied.
Chance, visibly surprised, said, "You didn't put me on your top 50 list?! N***a what? Top 50? I'm not top 50?"
Smiling the whole time, Chance continued, "N***a, I'm top five. And I'm definitely not five."
The studio erupted into laughter as Chance continued to grill Ebro on his list. "Just know I looked at your list and I was like, 'Man, all these people are hating on it I'm sure he has me on it why would they hate?' I didn't know that you didn't put me on there and there's why everbody was hating on it," he said with a grin on his face.
Later in the talk, Chance went deep on the significance of The Big Day's cover.
"I proposed to her at my grandmother's house," he said at 18:00 of his wife, Kirsten Corley. "Which is where a lot us were raised at.... Crazy enough, one of my uncle's passed away—my uncle Kirk, my dad's younger brother, a month and a half ago—and he passed away at that house.... I feel like had I not proposed there and shot my album cover there, that could have been like the main remnant on our minds of what that house represents."
During a separate interview with Sway, Chance spoke about why he felt the need to stay in Chicago despite his continued success. "Throughout history, in my lineage, I come from people that worked hand to hand with the people in Chicago to affect change that they wanted to see happen and they were always successful," he said at the 49:00 minute point of the interview below.
"I probably won't reach that level, but I want to be able to be there," he continued, before going off on a tangent about wanting to see famous Chicago celebrities when he was growing up.
"When I was growing up I loved Kanye West, but—and this is not knock to Kanye 'cus Kanye had to do what he had to do for him and his family—but you know what I'm saying, I wanted see Kanye and Lupe and Twista walking around down the street like that," he added. "I still think to this day, I always wonder like, 'I wonder if when I was a baby I was ever in an elevator with Kanye West?' I wondered if I was ever at Water Tower [shopping mall] and Kanye was like, 'Get these kids outta my way!'"
