Chance The Rapper has a lot riding on his next album, though he seems quite sure that its tracklist will make waves.
On Saturday (July 22), the Acid Rap hitmaker hyped up his upcoming LP with full confidence, writing: “It’s merched I got the best next album outta all the n-ggas that have a next album [three weeping emojis].”
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“Merched” is Chicago slang for “proven,” so Chance appears to have no doubts as to who will put out the next best record. This is a particularly bold claim considering his last release was widely panned by fans and the media.
However, he has dropped a string of successful singles, as well as a joint project with Jeremih since then, so an impactful comeback via the upcoming Star Line Gallery is indeed likely.
In early June, the Chi-town native phoned in to Audacy Check In to provide an update on the follow-up to 2019’s The Big Day.
“It’s one of my proudest projects in terms of writing and artistic vision,” he said. “There’s an immense amount of work to be done with it. But it’s cool ’cause I feel like with the love and intentionality that goes into making each physical art piece gives me an opportunity to show people in these museum spaces what I’m working on as I go, the highs and the lows, kind of like a preview to the project…”
The album title shares its name with Chance and Vic Mensa’s festival in Ghana. The Black Star Line Festival took place in Accra’s Black Star Square, also known as Independence Square, in early January 2023.
During an interview on Sway in the Morning last year, he broke down the deeper meaning behind Star Line Gallery.
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“I was inspired by Marcus Garvey in the early 1900s, 1919 through actually 1922, so 100 years ago now,” he said. “He started and ran this very important, integral shipping line. He had a fleet of ships, these giant ocean liners which are the size of cruise ships, that he owned and funded with common Black folks’ money.”
He continued: “But what he did with it was he created a trade route between the United States, all of the Black islands and the continent of Africa, and that created a network of people where people from all over the world were interconnected and working with each other and taking trips together, and created this connectivity that didn’t exist before.”
