The Big Day, Chance the Rapper's new album that's inspired ongoing critical discourse and at least one excellent (and notably Chance-acknowledged) meme, is the subject of Zane Lowe's latest extended sit-down on Beats 1/Apple Music.
In the Friday-published discussion, Chance called his wedding "the best wedding of all time" and noted it's in need of having a movie made about it. He also again went deep on his preference for more independent-minded approaches to the industry, Kanye West, general ambitions, and more.
"There's a lot of film and TV that comes out that depicts people going from writing raps on the bus and rapping at the shelter and, you know, just, like, getting discovered," Chance said of what he characterizes as misconceptions about what "making it" looks like in the modern industry. "That's the idea, is you get discovered or put on, and then you're in the game. And a lot of people just don't recognize that they're already in the game now. I don't have an issue with any specific labels or anybody that's had the labels. It's just the business model of it is a little wack."
Chance's cousin Brian, meanwhile, is pointed to in the discussion as hugely influential on the development of The Big Day.
"I think what sparked the whole album was my cousin Brian," Chance said. "He hit 'The Percolator.' But in a way that was like, a 'life is grand' type of way. But also I grew up smacking 'The Percolator' every time I heard any type of song like this . . . And just, I remember just seeing that and seeing his face and seeing how hyped up everybody else was."
On matters of 'Ye and faith, Chance had this to offer: "That's like 'Ye's number one thing that he tells me, is he talks about being a light of the world," Chance said. "He talks about being somebody that can just openly be me."
Chance later shared his assessment of what might constitute the "best album of all time," a collection of music he imagines in a very specific way.
"If I was to find the greatest album sitting on the ground outside, and it was actually in fact the greatest album, what would it be?" he wondered aloud to Zane. "It would be made out of diamonds. It would be a nostalgic [album] but also futuristic. You can't have a greatest album of all time without a shit ton of love songs. All the best albums have love songs. It's not all about me and my journey and how fast I can rap and shit like that. It's about love. And most of all, you have to be able to dance to it. The best album of all time for me is not something that I need to listen to with reading glasses."
Addressing what he feels is a misconception about his life’s work, Chance pointed to multiple moments in his career as showing his emotional range and also explained his views on legacy. "There's a caricature of me that's, like, I only make happy songs or songs for babies and stuff like that," Chance said. "In fact, I make a lot of sad songs. Like a lot, a lot of sad songs. A lot of slower melancholy songs on most of my projects. I think I've always made music about death."
Further tying the discussions to the joint topics of legacy and death, Chance took this opportunity to remind listeners that no one is here forever. "Well, regardless of what you believe in, heaven, hell or afterlife . . . you will be alive for much shorter than you are not alive," he said. "So there will be a longstanding time when I'm not able to say shit about what happens with my music."
When discussing The Big Day, Chance brought up his initial thought to make what he considered the best album of all time, and what would go into that. "The concept was best album of all time, and that's not really a good concept to make music," he explained. Zane then asked Chance what the best album was before The Big Day. His response: "I would say, to me personally, the best album of all time... Acid Rap."
See the full interview, which also sees a prediction that the next POTUS is "very likely" an independent or fringe party politician, up top.
