Frequent collaborators Justin Bieber and Chance the Rapper linked up once again earlier this month for the release of the new single "Holy," accompanied by an already-viewed-by-millions short film of the same name.
In a quarantine-friendly livestream promoting the new track earlier this month, Bieber and Chance noted they were both in the process of making new albums, though Chance was adamant about putting the conversational attention on Bieber's new music. As fans will note, Bieber is not even a year removed from the Valentine's Day 2020 release of his fifth album, the "Intentions"-featuring Changes.
"I feel like we should talk about how fire your album is," Chance told Bieber about five minutes into the discussion, as seen in the video at the top of this page. "[Remember] when we went to Chicago and we were all freaking out?"
Bieber responded by noting that the Chicago-set freaking out was indeed "so fun," adding that this new album includes "really some of the best music" he's ever made, a self-assessment which prompted Bieber to ask Chance if he agreed.
"I would say, I'm gonna, this is no cap at all and I said this to you in Chicago, it's some of the best music I've ever heard, period," Chance said. "It reminds me of when Michael Jackson made Off the Wall. Everybody that's listening…I promise you it is literally groundbreaking music. Stuff that's, like, it's just hard to explain and I don't want to give away, like, the genres and all that stuff. But you went crazy and I already told you that. But, like, I'm just excited that everybody's gonna get to hear that."
And while some viewers were quick to roast Chance for the mention of the classic 1979 MJ album, a full read of his comments—though he does separately refer to Bieber's new music as "literally groundbreaking"—shows that he was arguably referring more to a creative focus during sessions for the two separated-by-decades projects that he believes is of a similar level.
Still, a clip from the interview was circulated on Twitter, including one widely shared example that's since been deleted, resulting in some commentary that Chance was quick to decry:
At any rate, catch the full discussion—which also sees Chance jokingly wondering if a higher power texts god to tell Bieber to call him when he's feeling "sad and salty"—up top.
And for more on "Holy," peep the new behind-the-scenes featurette below that sees the two artists' process of bringing the track to life in visual form with director Colin Tilley explored in extensive detail:
