Chance the Rapper responds to the perception that he only makes happy or childlike music: “I make a lot of sad songs”

It’s not all rainbows and butterflies with the rapper

In a new interview, Chance the Rapper has pushed back against the perception that he “only make[s] happy song or songs for babies.”

Two weeks ago, the Chicagoan put out his debut studio album, ‘The Big Day’, which is heavily inspired by the marital bliss he’s enjoying with Kirsten Corley, his wife of six months. NME described the album in a three-star review as a “buoyant, cheerful project that looks back on his young, successful career through rose-tinted lenses”.

In an interview published last Friday (August 2), Beats 1’s Zane Lowe asked Chano about the song ‘Sun Come Down’, on which the rapper addresses how he wants his legacy treated after his death, and asked if it might surprise people to learn “there’s a morbid side to your nature”. Hear the track below:

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“Sometimes, there’s a caricature of me that I only make happy songs or songs for babies and stuff like that,” the rapper replied. “In fact, I make a lot of sad songs. Like a lot, a lot of sad songs. [There are] a lot of slower melancholy songs on most of my projects.”

“I think I’ve always made music about death,” he said, pointing to how much of his 2012 debut mixtape ‘10 Day’ and his 2016 ‘Coloring Book’ mixtape were influenced by seeing friends of his pass away as a teenager. “I’ve always had a weird relationship with death from the jump,” he added.

The different treatment of mortality on ‘The Big Day,’ the rapper said, “was way more reflective of my own life, because for one, I had a way better relationship with death and eternal life and understanding that, and then also spending so much time trying to keep my masters and my ownership and everything.” Watch the full, 30-minute video of Chance the Rapper’s conversation with Lowe here:

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This past weekend, Chance joined Death Cab For Cutie on stage in Lollapalooza to perform ‘Do You Remember’, their collaborative track from the new album. He will take ‘The Big Day’ on the road next month with a North American tour that kicks off on September 14 in San Francisco. See tour dates below:

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