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Music

Chance the Rapper Is Mellow and Thoughtful on a New Untitled Track

He took the 48-hour-old song to ‘Colbert’ last night, performing it with Daniel Caesar.
Lauren O'Neill
London, GB

On Monday night, Chance the Rapper appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to perform, and ended up bringing a track he'd written just 48 hours before – because he's Chance the Rapper and, like any artist in the thick of things, bangs out hits over a time period the rest of us would spend remembering to do our laundry. The untitled song is a contemplative one that touches on topics ranging from the passage of time to how his celebrity has changed his life, and white passivity in the face of social justice issues which require action. Sounds like an earful, I know, but in Chance's hands, it's sweet and poignant.

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Backed up by Daniel Caesar on guitar and vocals, who recently released album Freudian, the performance is an impassioned one, with a pretty light show that makes the set end up looking like steps you'd go up on the way to heaven. Makes sense. You can see it below.

Elsewhere during his appearance on the show, Colbert asked Chance about his fans' campaign to make him Mayor of Chicago in 2019. He pretty much refuted the idea, saying that politics doesn't appeal to him, and that "politics is really fast and it's about popularity and strategy in a lot of ways, which I can admire, but… it doesn't make the same change that legislation makes. So I try not to get caught up in politics or any, 'entertaining' things. I try and keep my eyes focused on the things that affect us systemically." And though he does go on to discuss his SocialWorks organisation in Chicago, it's clear that he's probably not going to be running for that particular seat in public office anytime soon. Which is just as well, because I'd been hoping for another album kind of soon. See the interview above.

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