THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. Tuesday, July 30, 2019 |A
LIFE & ARTS
A Hip-Hop Missive From Married Life
Chance the Rapper ruminates on his recent union in a guest-heavy new record
MUSIC REVIEW|MARK RICHARDSON
IN THE ERA OFthe artist-as-brand,
Chicago’s Chance the Rapper, born
Chancelor Bennett in 1993, has
fashioned himself into a sort of
millennial Robin Hood—self-releas-
ing his records and giving them
away for free while donating large
sums of money to worthy causes
and generally playing by his own
rules. Across a handful of mixtapes,
including the Grammy-winning
2016 “Coloring Book,” his music,
though rich with specific details
from his own life, faces outward.
He uses his own story as a spring-
board to take on larger ideas about
faith, responsibility, growth and
the power of community.
That blend of the personal and
the universal continues with thejust released “The Big Day,” which
Mr. Bennett is calling his debut al-
bum (in hip-hop, the distinction
between a “mixtape” and an “al-
bum” is often arbitrary). Earlier
this year, he married his longtime
girlfriend—the couple has a child
together, and another on the way—
and his new work is essentially a
concept record about matrimony.
Mr. Bennett brings along friends
to help explore the weighty sub-
ject. “The Big Day” is packed with
guests, including contributors
from the worlds of hip-hop, R&B,
rock, gospel and dance music. To
squeeze all these contributors and
styles into the frame, Mr. Bennett
has erected an extra-large canvas:
“The Big Day” has 22 tracks thattotal 77 minutes, making the al-
bum considerably longer than any
of his previous releases.
Mr. Bennett is a master of gos-
pel-infused hip-hop that combines
his light and deft vocal tone with
lofty spiritual ideas. The piano-led
“5 Year Plan,” which has a cameo
from veteran singer-songwriter and
composer Randy Newman, is a
beautiful example. It’s about how
thoughtful intentions can be dis-
rupted by circumstance, and it
showcases Mr. Bennett’s offhand
brilliance on the microphone. With
a few dazzling lines, he paints a
picture of the scene on a wedding
day, squeezes in a joke about an in-
surance company, and offers a word
about Burt Bacharach, whose musichas served as the
soundtrack for many
such events.
“We Go High,”
which borrows its
title from a famous
line from Michelle
Obama’s speech at
the 2016 Democratic
National Conven-
tion, finds Mr. Ben-
nett looking back on his life and as-
sessing his mistakes while
remembering how his faith saw
him through. Its strength comes
from his vulnerability, and there’s a
tremendously moving moment
when the music stops and he sings
the titular phrase in a quavering,
unsteady voice. “Do You Remem-ber”—which features vocals from
Ben Gibbard of the rock band Death
Cab for Cutie, a chord progression
that brings to mind Bill Withers’s
“Lean on Me,” and lyrics that focus
on the innocence of childhood sum-
mers—is equally affecting.
A few of the musically simpler
songs get by on vocal charm alone.
“Slide Around,” with contributions
from Nicki Minaj and Chicago rap-
per Lil Durk, has Mr. Bennett in a
loose and nimble mode, effortlessly
flowing with heartfelt observations
about building a family (“Livin’
with the people I’ma die around”)
over a minimal beat by Atlanta
producer Pi’erre Bourne. In a mo-
ment of levity, “Hot Shower” has
Mr. Bennett trading lines about
smoking weed and ignoring calls
from an attorney with rappers Ma-
deinTYO and DaBaby. They rhyme
hypnotically in a cadence with a
descending melody, as if their
words are tumbling down a hill.
The thematic unity of “The Big
Day” is its greatest asset. Mr. Ben-
nett raps about his parents and his
children, his hopes and his fears,
and mixes insight with humor and
gravity with silliness. But musically,
the album wants to do a little bit of
everything, and sometimes it feels
like Mr. Bennett is checking a box
on a list of genres. “I Got You (Al-
ways and Forever)” is a breezy R&B
number heavy on atmosphere but
without much of a song underneath.
“Ballin Flossin,” featuring Canadian
pop star Shawn Mendes singing a
refrain that’s not catchy enough to
be called a hook, has a lightly funky
house beat, but it’s too melodically
vague and rhythmically inert to
serve as a call to the dance floor.
The lesser tracks are mostly
confined to the album’s sagging
middle. But about two-
thirds of “The Big Day”
is strong, which given
its length means that it
has about 50 minutes of
good-to-excellent music.
“Town on the Hill,” a
gentle R&B ballad that
comes near the end,
finds Mr. Bennett sing-
ing about gratitude and
feeling loved, his voice
fragile. He sounds like a flawed
person trying to live a righteous
life and lift up those around him,
and the questions he raises on the
song, and across the album, are
ones he was born to grapple with.Mr. Richardson is the Journal’s
rock and pop music critic.‘The Big Day’ is the
new album from
Chancelor Bennett aka
Chance the RapperRICH FURY/GETTY IMAGES FOR COACHELLA
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