It’s the big day! The album is out, and it’s quite literally entitled The Big Day. Chance the Rapper is back in the game with his debut studio album, following up the recent re-release of his 2013 breakthrough mixtape Acid Rap onto all streaming platforms. Amidst the old music resurfacing, The Big Day is a whopping twenty-two track album with an hour and seventeen minutes of content.
As a blanket statement, I love the album. I think it’s an interesting mix between Acid Rap and his previous full-length project Coloring Book. While I will agree with my avid Chance fan friend that the new album “is no Coloring Book,” I happen to think it succeeds as a piece of art in its own way. While Acid Rap was about, well, acid, Coloring Book heavily spoke of our heavenly father. The Big Day’s title suggests weddings, and no big surprise there, the album is about Chance’s new wife.
While this album feels a little cuter and cheesy at times, I think there are a few tracks that veer off of this path strongly. The track “Roo” has some heavy lyrics, and the track “Hot Shower” is good old fashion club music with a sick beat.
The album’s first track, “All Day Long,” hit me hard with some references such as “I’m about to book a show at the Dimmsdale Dimmadome” and “But that boy advance gotta be bigger than Diddy Kong / I need stock and it gotta be Pippi Long.” The second song “Do You Remember” was correctly timed to come out at the beginning of the summer and features Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie (or The Postal Service as I like to say, because everyone knows The Postal Service is better).
I like the first half of the album a lot better than the second. Yes, he does talk about his wife and kid a lot, but who wouldn’t if they’re happy? Bottom line, this album isn’t a masterpiece, but it has a couple gems. It’s not hardcore in any way, but I’m glad Chance is happy. The beats are pretty sick too.
Illustration by Cleophas Chambliss
