Chance the Rapper Discusses Starline Album, Social Issues, and Personal Growth

[Music] What's up? It's way up with Angela Ye. This guy has definitely been way up.

Chance the rapper is here. >> Thanks, Angela. >> I see you got your merch on, too. Style.

I do. I do. Let me see. >> Let me see this. That's really nice. >> This is uh this some of the new pieces.

The pants is a collaboration with Kassubi. I love I love their Yeah. And then the this joint is uh this one's

going to be I think an exclusive. I could be wrong, but I think this is an exclusive with with Complex Shop. You

are not playing with the merch with the I was actually um here's a little secret. Before you got here today, I was

watching you on live. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When I was doing the talk shop.

>> Yeah. You were doing a talk shop. So, I had to sign up for it and you know go through all of that. So, I was like,

"Let me see what Chance is talking about." That's right. >> Cuz a lot of people haven't been getting

information about Starline like that. You know what I'm saying? I feel like you've been giving us bits and pieces.

We've been sending emails like, "Okay, so what are um you know, the collabs and we got to wait for the album to come

out." I just don't want to give it away too soon. Like there's something about like hearing a new body of work for the

first time and still being able to be surprised and being able to enjoy it like on a

>> on a level of like this is all new versus like, you know, >> anticipating what kind of song this kind

of person would be on cuz I I I do have a few features. It's not a featureheavy album, but uh the artists that are on

there, some of the songs that they're on are different songs than they're typically on or like, you know, uh or I

just want people to be surprised that I'm working with this person for the first time type stuff. So, I think like

>> I want to just like give them give everybody that's been waiting for the project

>> and they've been waiting. >> I feel like this has been a long time coming. We're going to talk about the

evolution of Starline. I mean, I did see the video that you directed with Little Wayne and you know the tree with the

Indie sample. I love that song. >> Thank you, man. Yeah, it's like >> it's cool.

>> I think that song is like a really good >> maybe not sonically like the songs sound different, but like in terms of I think

it's a good thesis statement for the project. So, you know, like the song outwardly or like on your first surface

list and it just sounds like kind of like a weed song. It's fun. You get to hear the NDR sample. you know, there's

like some like clever funny bars, but as you like kind of strip away, you know, or or I guess like hone in on on the

purpose of the song, it's really in a lot of ways about uh the inequities or unfairness in the cannabis industry, how

it's become a commercialized thing, but it's still people in prison for it. Um, and and it's also like largely a song

dedicated to my mom or anybody else that's been, you know, at some point uh kind of like otherized or felt like a

taboo because of weed. Like, you know, like we made like a it's made a crazy rebrand in like the past 20 years. But

there was a whole 180 >> when I was in high school reinvent themselves. Let me tell you, the rules

around it be the same politicians that are so against it, want to lock you up are the same ones that are like trying

to open up Med. Yeah. And they own like some of these, you know, not to name like drop brands, but I'm just saying

like the the whole way that people even go about it in terms of like the rich people having access to meds or to grow

cards uh prior to like anybody else that's like really trying to start up a business off of it. And but also just

like how we look at people. Like when I was in high school, um you know, like 15 years ago, I remember like coming into

class smelling like weed like freshman and sophomore year was like people will look at you like you were a murderer or

something. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? And then >> come to Chance.

>> Sophomore and junior year though, you know, just cushioning orange juice changed a lot of people's perception on.

And so it's like over time you see it become more and more of just like a regular thing. But even still within

like it becoming more normalized, there's still like a separate viewing of like how we think about

weed as like a funny like thing that people just do or like as a joke in movies versus how they pair it with like

hip-hop culture or blackness and it's like still taboo. And so I kind of wanted to make a song that like

celebrated my mom celebrated, you know, people like people smoke weed, you know what I'm saying? Like

>> but like >> even when you think about staff and frisk, right? A lot of people Yeah. But

back then, you know, black people in and black neighborhoods get stopped in fris and go to jail for weed. White people

smoke weed just as much as black people do, but they're not going to end up going to jail for it and then have a

record that Yeah. >> that follows them all 100%. And I think like

>> hip-hop is just like >> I heard I can't remember who it was. I think it was KS1 was explaining like

hip-hop the origin of the word um you know the hip and the hop of it. Like the hop is the movement. So it's like it's

movement in terms of dance and like but also like culture in terms of what's you know relevant at that time and then also

like the literal movement like you know we all a part of the movement even though it's not the 60s no more like

we're all a part of society and we all have our opinions and we all use our power whatever that is your voice your

hands your whatever to push that [ __ ] for excuse me to push that forward okay you can curse

>> okay okay uh but then on the side of like the hip like He was explaining that means like you got to get people hip to

stuff like it's like intelligence that we passing along every time that we rap. And so whether it's like we describing a

block or we describing our love life or we describing you know the money that we got or that we trying to make like we

we're passing off intelligence every time. And so I think with this whole album, I'm trying to make it or I or I

made it fun to listen to, but also something that you could like go back and layer through and be like, "Oh, oh,

oh, oh." and learn something and, you know, or like re-evaluate something just based off of, you know, how dense some

of the lyrics are. >> You know, I want to say one of the songs that's like that was Negro Problem. And

it's interesting because I only got the album last night, so I haven't had to been able to sit with it the way that I

wanted to. But I literally went to the doctor yesterday, right? And one conversations around black women and

fibroids and how black women have fibroids at a three times greater percentage than um than white women do.

And so in this Can you talk about the song, Negro? I was listening to that and it literally was making me think about

my visit of like going to the doctor and the things that we have to deal with in our community that maybe doesn't get uh

you the studies that they deserve to get the money put behind it because it affects us like sickle cell and things

like that. >> No facts. Yeah. that whole second verse of negro problem is is kind of

hyperfocused on uh medical care and like the like the difference in the medical care that we receive as black folks

versus um versus other groups. And it's like widely uh documented that uh doctors expect black men and women to

have a higher pain tolerance that they don't necessarily like uh take it as seriously when there's something that a

patient believes is a medical emergency. like you could go down the list like in terms of transplants like there's so

many things and I think what I honed in >> maternal health care black maternal health care

>> that's what I really honed in on is like when when it comes to maternal health care and like you know delivering

children like there's a lot of death there's a lot of like ignoring of of medical emergencies this is all

documented this not like something I'm just making up you know what I'm saying and I think like we hear about it every

once in a while when like a study comes out but it's not really documented in music like that and so

this song It's called the Negro Problem. It's the title is pulled from a old a old book by Booker T. Washington that

was uh describing some of the issues that black America faced in terms of uh it trying to get to upwards mobility.

And so I mix that book which you know has its errors like so I don't want anybody coming after me being like that

book is blah blah blah but like it's a mixture of that and then this idea of intersectionality which is that uh a lot

of the problems that we face can find like a general like meeting point of like if like I'm I could picture

somebody who's not black hearing this and being like man we all got problems at at the hospital or like in the first

verse I talk more about the criminal justice system or just like the envirment that black folks is raised in

or our relationship to violence that then, you know, keeps this this cycle of violence going whether it's towards us

or towards each other. Um and and they might hear that and be like, man, I got problems with the police, too. I got

problem. And that's kind of the point. That's the idea behind intersectionality is like everything works on this scale

of like the broker you are, the blacker you are, the you know the more otherized you are, the more different you are, you

get these issues of society more up close and personal the further you go towards this intersection. And the idea

of the hook, it says uh my problem is your problem. Uh your problem is my problem. and and basically saying like

this negro problem is like the magnified, you know, most in-depth version of issue

that you could see and that if you fix it within that, like where the real issue is in Medicare or the real issue

is in in criminal justice or the real issue is wherever, then it'll reverberate and have positive effects on

everybody else that that's money is [ __ ] up or, you know, uh can't find work, can't can't get proper medical

attention, can't get whatever. Man, I listen I was it just so happened that song did kind of like resonate with me

at that moment in particular too just because like I said I was um saying on the radio I was like dang I ain't been

to the doctor in over two years to get like a regular checkup and we had a whole conversation about it here and

then somebody called in this guy said he ain't been in 19 years >> and he was like

>> you know I don't need to go. He was like but I did pass out the other day while I was outside smoking a cigarette but I

just had low blood sugar but I'm not going to the doctor. I just going to pray

>> that that's how the the first the first part of that verse it also explains like that we have a weird relationship

because of our history or understand of our families or friends histories with the doctor that we get the experimental

drugs that people you know put us through test without letting us know whether it's the Tuskegee experiment

whether it's um now I'm about to forget her name she just celebrated uh they they took her womb or parts of her womb

out what is her name Jesus Christ. Um, I can't remember, but I've just got so many things going on today. But

>> and I seen you already working all day today. >> No. Yeah, I'm running around. But like,

>> yeah, >> there's this, you know, weird relationship that we have to the doctor.

And especially black men, we don't be wanting to go get certain checkups or, you know, stay in the hospital or go get

seen or call an ambulance. One, because of the financial part of it, which is crazy. But then also just because we

have this innate fear that we could go in there and come out worse than we went in,

>> right? You be like, "Nothing was wrong with me and then I went to the doctor and now all of a sudden I'm dying." Like

>> I think it's a mixture though of the two things of like there is a certain paranoia that might not even necessarily

be there. You might need to go to the doctor and see, you know what I'm saying? But then on the other side like

>> everything has a little bit of truth to it. So, you know, you could be pulling from your own experience going to the

doctor or what happened when your dad went to the doctor or, you know, you put granny in the hospital and then they

messed up something like a lot. That's a lot of people's stories. That's how that verse ends.

>> Listen, that's how my grandfather, he was went in the hospital. Um, he was having some issue with his hearing and

then he like fell in the hospital and died >> and I was like, well, dang. He, you

know, it was devastating because we didn't expect all of that to happen. >> Fanny Liu Hammer. Thank you.

>> Oh, thank you, >> Lu Hamer. like that was that's that's a a story of them, you know, stealing uh

her body from medical research and stem cell research. >> And we always hear about these organs

being stolen and things like that. >> It's real, man. All that stuff is real. Harvesting

>> and I don't think it only happens to black people, but it probably happens to black people on a higher scale. And so

that's like the idea of it is like we have these issues, but we won't address them. And even on the that ending verse

of um of that second verse where I talk more about like medical stuff uh the last lines is uh uh malpractice we still

can't call or malpractice we still can't file them. All know the number but we just won't dial them. It's talking about

like >> my cousin Dcoin passed away I think four years ago to the day yesterday. Um and

he was uh I think he had a headache or something small. He went to one of the worst hospitals in Chicago. I'm not

going I don't want to get into it with them, but I'm just saying he went there and I think he got a shot for something

because he had had a seizure, but he passed away in the hospital that same day. Super young. I think he was in his

early 20s, maybe 21 or 20 years old. Um, but then it was just like it's kind of what it is in a lot of cases. like we go

through something where they give your mom or your aunt or whoever the wrong medication, they have an allergic

reaction. They have some sort of like organ failure and then it's just kind of like their hands are in the air and then

we don't be knowing all the things to do or having the money in place to go actually file a a malpractice lawsuit.

So, it's just kind of like explaining these issues that like some people don't see as real issues or say, "Oh, yeah,

that's just a negro problem." and kind of like putting them to the forefront and saying like, "No, like if y'all

solve this problem. Do you know that that would positively affect your daughters and and your granny and your

whoever?" >> You know, um this album has been a long time in the making. And when we talk

about the song like a tree, we s I saw that process as like when you first were working on it and you do let people in a

lot on the process of like your writing um so they know what's going on. So talk to me about because it's been years like

how long? Six years. >> Six years. >> Yeah. since the last project.

>> Isn't that crazy? >> It is crazy. Did you even anticipate it was going to take you?

>> Not at all. I would have had it out way sooner if I could. I think it I'm glad for the journey that it took because it

I got so much knowledge and so many friends made, so many communities. Like I spent a lot of time in Ghana. Like I

always got to shout out Ghana cuz that brought me a lot of the, you know, understanding of this global community

of blackness. how we all been, you know, connected, traveling, creating movements and community internationally for years

and and years and years and years and years. Uh, and so going to Ghana, going to the art fairs and meeting some of the

like top artists, like our top contempor contemporary artists and getting to like be in real community with them

definitely informed the album a lot. And I think also like, you know, my personal life changed over and over and over and

over again. And I think like in that time it's funny like there's some things that

are like happen in the news like you know just where we are as a country and how we stand as a part of like the

international community um that I'll have a song that I'm working on and then I feel like it's done and then something

happens and I'll be like >> man I knew I was supposed to talk about that. Now I definitely got to talk about

that. and I'll go back and like add something or change something or pull something. And I think like music is

similar to a painting in that, you know, it's never done till it's done. And really only the artist knows when it's

done. And and even they sometimes don't necessarily know until you look up one day and like, "Oh, this piece has always

been beautiful just like this. I thought it was missing something or I was afraid to release it or whatever happened."

Like this has to come out. And I think like with this project, everything kind of fell into place in the perfect time.

Like I'm working again with Brandon Bro. That's my uh that's my dog. He's >> He did the artwork.

>> He did the artwork. Yeah. So I I I I've been working with Brandon since I was 20 or 19 years old. Um he's like a big

brother to me. He used he ran this really uh successful clothing company out of Chicago called Ensel. He's

obviously like an international painter. But we did the first three projects like when we were both even though he's older

than me like you know younger in our careers. Um, and then like to come back now all these years later and do, you

know, another project and be really really intentional about it the same way that we were with coloring book. You

know, coloring book as rap was his idea, right? So, he took a picture of me at this random bar

like with a fan >> and it definitely worked out. Yeah. Before you came in here, our producer

Dan, he went to the anniversary performance. He said it was one of the best concerts he ever been to.

>> Yo, thank you. And you're not lying, right? You weren't even here. You got the vinyl joint. Yeah. No, I feel like

like >> that's one thing that I can do is I could put on a show and I and I I love

songwriting. I love recording. I love all the things dealing with music, but my favorite thing to do is be on a stage

singing my works. So, I feel like with Brandon being back with me and being able to sit in the studio and go through

songs and really like what Brandon really focuses on like he focuses on portraiture. So, he's really like

intense with the shadowing and like what expression he wants me to have on the cover arts. Except for coloring book,

that was my idea to be looking at my daughter to get the smile and stuff. But for this one and all the other ones,

he's like he's like, "We need you, you need to be looking up or you need to be looking at the side. You need to have

your body position like this." And then he spends a long time thinking about what the setting of the painting is. So,

for this one, he picked uh I always I don't know how to pronounce it, but Aurora Borealis,

>> which I'm going just say the easier way to say it, the the Northern Lights. Um, and it's like this this crazy like

cosmic thing that happens that you can only see like >> every like once in a while, every every

three months. >> It's like it's a it's a thing. Oh, my [ __ ] my [ __ ] god. My fault.

>> All right, your hair. >> I just got really I know my hair's getting long. Um, but there's this thing

where like they allow um where people will travel to go get this to get this vision of this this

beautiful thing that happens cosmically and you're standing over the water and uh and in two parts he was like well one

you know the space that you go see it you're right on the waters and a big like part of this album is uh is pulling

from the Black Star Line which was that shipping and trading company that Marcus Garvey started in the early 1920s

that, you know, gave black people the opportunity. Yeah. To trade, to build community, and also like, you know, a

lot of times when we think about black people and ships, we think of slave ships. Like we think of like, you know,

we don't necessarily think of the idea of like an all black crew, you know, determining their own destination,

creating community, all that stuff. And so when I learned about that, I thought I felt that was so empowering. I'm a

>> I do believe in, you know, black entrepreneurship, not necessarily black capitalism. are two different things to

me. But like I believe in like you know black people self-determining and creating business and creating networks

and also being able to chart their own path metaphorically and physically. So like I I really aligned with this idea

of like a ship and the waters and all these things as motifs. And so he was like, I love this place because you, you

know, you'll be in nature and in front of the waters. And then also that northern lights will work as like in a

way as like a call back to the North Star and the Black Star and like and just like having our, you know, having

the stars having our back. And I probably explained it wrong. When Brandon sees this, he's going to correct

me. But like, >> you know, it's interesting because you said you have been through a lot of

personal changes. So, it's nice to have something familiar that you're comfortable with, too, as you're

working, as you're putting out something new. >> No, 100%. I think Brandon is like

somebody that's been with me through all of the changes in my life. And, you know, like

Chicago is so small that we all like kind of grew up together. So, and we're all still for the most part really

really close. So having to have him be by my side in this in this time and also having him be like my introduction to

the arts. Like I've I tell people all the time like when I first put out 10day and acid rap um so many people would

come to me and tell me like I had never heard your music before. I never heard anything from you. I clicked on your

[ __ ] cuz I seen that artwork >> and the merch is amazing that goes in. It kind of falls into everything. No,

it's all it's all crossconnected. And I think he >> as like a as a person that used to fail

at art class every year and almost got kicked out of school for like a lie that my art teacher told on me in sophomore

year. I've always had a weird separation from art. It was crazy. I'm not going to shout her out.

>> What was the lie, >> bro? something happened where she was like

she was like uh something happened where she was telling everybody to shut up and I was still

talking and she said something along the lines of like get out the class and I was like all right I bet and I grabbed

my [ __ ] and walked out and then she like told the administration that I had like threatened her and that I've like made

like I physically charged her some type of crazy [ __ ] I was I was blessed that there was 30 witnesses in the room that

was like this [ __ ] just going to make a room full of kids. It was crazy also cuz it's like I hated going to school. Like

I used to not go to school. Like I went to school downtown in Chicago. I'm from 79. So I would take the train all the

way to where all the big buildings are and everything. And then I'd have to look at this school that looks like a

jail and then all around it is these big beautiful buildings and like Dave and Busters and you know what I'm saying

places I could just kick it Panera Bread and I would just not go to school. So around that time when I started going

back to school, I had gotten placed in this arts class. I think was like the freshman and sophomores art class cuz I

missed that credit and stuff. And so I used to just hate being in there and used to hate having to draw. Like I'm

not good at drawing. So when that stuff happened and she kicked me out, like it almost ruined my whole like like almost

got kicked out of school. All type stuff. >> Why would a teacher do that's wild to

me. >> Me and my teachers was never cool. Like I have like maybe four teachers that I

could think of from kindergarten through, you know, I was always cool with like the dean of discipline with

like certain people that were like in administration that like, you know, at first they would get tired of seeing me,

but then they hear what I got in trouble for. They were like, "Oh, you're funny as hell." Like you got in trouble for

doing what for >> That's interesting because I think I feel like education has been so

important to you even as far as with your nonprofits. But it also does show you that the right teachers and and the

right staffing can make such a huge difference. >> No, 100%. I I feel like what I learned

was like when I was in school, I thought differently than a lot of my friends, which one of the main things was like I

never really looked at a teacher as a teacher. Like I did in the very beginning and then by

the time I got to high school, I was just like, "Oh, these are just adults that just come here to watch us cuz our

parents got to go to work and cuz they need some money. So they don't care about making sure that I learn the

concepts. They don't care about like nothing I got going on really. They just want they waiting for the next bell to

ring so they could get the next group of kids in here. So they not going to care that I don't come to class. They not

going to care that I don't understand the concepts. They not going to care about really nothing other than maybe

trying to teach me a lesson cuz they going through a divorce or like tired of seeing these kids every day or whatever.

And so I used to not get along with my teachers at all. And then I feel like once I graduated and I started realizing

like some of the issues with youth and some of the problems I'm like well one of the main issues is just that these

classes are overpop populated and these teachers are underpaid. So, you know, I can't fault them for being human beings.

>> And I wish there was a different structure in which we, you know, allow kids to connect with adults. Like back

in the back in the back in the day, we were just talking about this in the car, like

>> the great philosophers and stuff that we know are all came up under like a system of like learning with one person. like

they learned with their parents and then they would go study under, you know, whoever was the great philosopher and

then they would in turn become their own come up with their own doctrine and and we still teach that philosophy years and

years later. And I say all that to say like >> the less the less kids it is to teach at

a time the better, you know. >> That's a fact. >> Yeah.

>> Some kids need special attention, too. I was in special ed. >> Yeah. Clearly. Oh, you were in special

ed? >> I was in special ed like from fourth grade through graduating high school. I

had um an IEP, which is an individualized education plan. I had like certain classes that I didn't go to

that I had to go sit in a room with like seven kids. Like, and I what I'll say is that like those sort of diagnosises and

labels on children definitely mess with um with their uh sense of self and confidence. And I used to always feel

like I was not >> smart when I was a kid. And obviously I am smart. the other.

>> Did y'all know I was in special ed before now? Did y'all even get a hint of a feeling that? Right.

>> I just felt like you needed special attention cuz sometimes because sometimes kids that are super creative

need that. Right. And it's also not easy when the other kids are making fun of you.

>> Facts. Like I think that's the hardest thing is feeling separated from everybody else.

>> We had kids that used to fix cars and they would just be like in this other the garage.

>> I wish I was at a trade school then I would know how to do something other than rap. But like I but I think like I

rap about it a lot on the album actually in like a couple of different songs on the intro and the outro. I kind of touch

on it. But like I think that when I did graduate and I realized some of those things that made me be like well first

of all I started working with kids way sooner. So I was in a lot of after school programs that was for creative

stuff. They didn't know I was in a special class. You know what I'm saying? So they treated me like I was a genius

because of my raps. And when uh and when our mentor died, we we all shared a mentor. Me, Vic, Mensah, Nico Seagal,

Noame, Lucky, uh Mick, Jenkins, Sabo, like there's a bunch of people. Yeah. We were all in this after school program

together in Chicago. Um that was led by this like this really cool dude, a long dress. His name was Brother Mike. Um

when he passed away, I think we was all probably like 20. This is like shortly after Asap came out. I think maybe a

little bit later, actually, I'm tripping. This is like 2014, 2015. Uh we all came together and we're like we're

going to continue his program ourselves and call it open mic. And that kind of like that reconnecting with the kids in

that way having like this this thing that was staffed by a bunch of like you know buring or you could call it like

already, you know, famous rappers and having all these kids, you know, that we were like guiding and given a platform

like that really was the beginning of my uh social works and nonprofit work. and also like made me be like, oh, like

these kids is talented. They just need somewhere to go. They just need someone be and that and that kind of like

>> pushed me into being like, oh, I want to be a mentor like brother Mike or like some of the people that help me. I want

to be provides for kids back then. >> No, it was it was like No. And you got to know like that's what I think is so

funny about this album is like >> I'm glad that I took time to like keep parsing out stuff to my to my fans and

supporters that like is more in the direction of the type of stuff I was writing when I was a kid. and what we

were, you know, a lot more radical than than, you know, what I think some of my fans would have been

used to if they had only heard coloring book or only heard ass rap only heard tende. Um, but like when we were kids,

like we was like we was like deep poet activist kind of kids. Like all of us, even the ones that like, you know,

including myself, like all of my music isn't so, you know, isn't super militant like our poetry and our raps were when

we were in high school. And if like anybody could imagine like we were our exact same selves um just shrunken down

with no facial hair and like >> screaming, you know what I'm saying about political action and you know uh

and stuff like that. And I just think it's so whenever I think about it, it's just so funny to me like we were

literally kids but we knew who we wanted to be and what we wanted to see in the world at a really young age. You know,

one of the standout tracks is No More Old Men >> on this and I definitely as we're

talking about all of this and thinking about like, you know, people that have helped you and wanted to continue this

program and help the next generation. Can you talk about No More Old Men and what was going on when you were writing

that song? >> Yeah. So, No More Old Men, I've told people a few times at this point and for

a long time, it's my favorite record on the album. It's a collaboration between me and Jamila Woods, who I've worked

with a bunch of times. She did Sunday Candy with me. She did blessings with me. Um, she actually was in another

after school program that most of us were in too. And she's I think two or three years older than me. So, she was

kind of like a counselor. But like, uh, Jamila and I were in like have known each other since we were kids. Um, and

when I made this song, I really wanted to do something that I'll tell you where it really comes

from. So, my cousin uh uh her name's uh Tanikia Carpenter. She's an amazing poet and um and a million things like she

she's just like a incredible person but she's a really really good poet and she had this piece I think it was called the

day with no grandfathers. I'm probably butchering the title but she basically wrote this piece that was like you know

because of how many [ __ ] get killed right after they have a kid. We're She's from Chicago. We're all from Chicago.

How many people that pass away before like right after they have a kid. Um, and how many, you know, old men uh end

up with health problems, dying younger and younger. There's going to be a day in Chicago where there's no uh papas is

what we be calling them. Like there's no grandfathers. And the piece was just so deep. This is years ago now. Um that I

was like, man, like I love this concept. And so I kind of did the same thing. The first verse is um really about um the

importance of this space that I used to occupy when I go to the barber shop with my dad. Like there's this there's this

you know kind of like boyhood father and son thing that has to happen or even your mom dropping you or your

cousins taking you where you go to the barber shop and it's all men and it's like you learn so many lessons. You

learn about women. You learn about sports. You learn about, you know, entrepreneurship of [ __ ] that get to

come in and bootleg stuff. You learn about, you know, the the colloquial barbershop talk.

>> You get that really as a kid. And there's like a very specific cultural like importance to that that

>> you know, we lose as as as you have less and less old men in the barber shop, less and less fathers in the barber

shop. And so that whole verse like kind of tells the story of um Mr. Harper who was the owner of the barber shop on on

87th when I was a kid. Mr. Darden who was one of my neighbors growing up. Um all the little things that I would see

and then it kind of just like reflects on like man a lot of that [ __ ] is gone. >> The second verse talks more so about

like my relationship to my father and how I watched him interact with his homies growing up. My dad and I are

super super close which is not always the story in hip-hop. You get it more now with like Kendrick talking about his

relationship with his father. The clips obviously talking about the relationship with their parents. Um, but it's a story

you don't didn't always used to see in rap. And so I talk a little bit about me and my dad, our closeness. Like I got a

line that I love so much. It starts off I say, uh, um, I danced with my father, Luther Vander Ross. We play catch so

much I turn to Randy Moss. like little lines like that like I love so much because they give a a a beautiful

and clever and understandable um description of the relationship with me and my dad and it also like you know

it uses hyperbole. So there's a lot of things I like about that but it it goes into further and further like describing

how my dad and his friend his friends relationships was and how even his friends romantic relationships with

their wives was. And it just kind of talks from a again a cultural standpoint of like understanding, you know, why

they make certain decisions. Why people get divorced but now or I'm sorry, why people split up

>> and never get divorced and like just live in two separate rooms or in two different parts of the house. Like

that's like a >> me growing up that was something that I used to see all the time. Listen, it's

something we all see and you know and I do want to say like even for you. I know that was a hard decision for you to get

divorce and you know we watch that struggle like break up, get back together, you know, and you briefly

reference it on the first song and you talk about divorce, child support, all of that. Um, and so I know sometimes

people look at you and they're like, "Okay, Chance the Rapper." Sometimes it feels like, man, you know, my parents

stayed married for a long time. They got divorced after I graduated from college and they still live together.

>> Yeah. No, that's the whole thing. >> Nobody, but I I feel like I wish they would have made that decision to like be

happy in life and move on. >> Yeah. I think like I don't know the answers at all. I don't

know what's right and what's wrong. I do know that like growing up I used to see and I didn't understand it when I was a

kid. I'm like damn why my uncle live like sleep in the basement. Like why is my auntie's room on the top floor? It's

felt normal. >> Yeah. It just felt like that's just how they live. And then you understand like

they at some point made a decision that that's how they wanted to live, but they also decided that they didn't want to,

you know, go through court or have their kids living in in separate houses or, you know, feel like they were alone in

any way. I that's what I reference in the verse. Um there's a line I'm going to butcher it but something where I say

you know um sleep in separate sleep in separate rooms for years uh when their hearts

broke. So at least somebody there if they start to stroke and it's like you know you split up and you spent all this

time with somebody and now you alone and who's going to be there to like be your partner or help you when you get sick or

if anything happens to you and I think that's the decision that a lot of our you know parents and aunts and uncles

and everybody made to like >> to keep some sort of like family house or some sort of family dynamic. Again,

not saying that that's the right way to do it, right? And not vilifying it because that's what I grew up knowing

for a long time. Um, but then also like I agree totally that people should go and, you know, in the pursuit of

happiness and in the pursuit of love and making decisions that are going to be best for their hearts. Um, and so like

again, yeah, I don't have all the answers, but I think even in the context of the intro, it's more like,

you know, I mention it, but I'm really mentioning it on like the like decision making part of like,

>> tell me now, tell me how can you now afford to file divorce, the child support, the back door, take the trial

to court. The back door and the trial to court is not about my about my situation. It's more like other things

that's going on in my life that I really don't talk about cuz I am, you know, like I have like all these things to

like worry about. So, I've like try not to like I guess cloud the information that I'm

putting out. >> Sometimes you don't want to say something it gets misinterpreted or it

becomes the headline when you have an album coming out on Friday. when I got an album coming out on Friday

>> called Starline and the tour that you just announced. >> And my tour that I'm so excited that's

like my favorite thing in the world is perform like you were saying like those acid rap shows like

>> I cannot wait to perform this material and to like put on a show with it for people and it's been so long since I've

been on stage that I really just kind of need, you know, I need that personal connection. I love being on stage and

feeding off of the fans and singing the songs together and like altering show mixes of them and like all of that stuff

is like that's one of my real joys. >> You seem like you genuinely like people. >> I love people.

>> Like you know how some people do it and it's like just cuz they but I feel that you really want to shout each person out

and like >> be a good person. >> You know some people like it's crazy.

>> It is sometimes. I mean >> I think I I I touch on that on the outro of the album. Like there's certain

people that I think especially the ones that grow up >> child stars.

>> Um and I'm not the definition of a child star. I kind of got >> I don't even know when I got on, but I

feel like I didn't start I didn't start traveling on a world tour till I was 19. But that's still really young. And you

get access to this fame and money and certain like adulation that you think is the

same thing as love uh at a young age. and you and it kind of like alters your you know brain

chemistry to the point that you can't even like you know uh you you can't tell the difference

between the two things. And so like I love people because since I was a kid I was doing open mics and like talent

shows and doing that whole circuit of like I love to get a mic in my hand and say what I want to say and be get claps

and stuff like that. And I think that remains with me. That's just a certain type of person. I think a lot of people

that came up in my industry that got on when they were in their teens or were traveling or supporting their family in

that way, like they got that same vibe of like, "Oh yeah, I love people. I want people to

love me." >> You know what I mean? >> Now listen, I could talk to you all day,

but they're telling me we got to wrap up because I know you're >> Yeah, we got to run oversea. But don't

run out yet. Let me just Okay. >> So, make sure y'all get tickets to the

show. The album is Starline finally is here. Um, so I just want to say congratulations to you. I love when we

get a chance to do to chat it up as well. Even off the mic like when I run kicking tell tell everybody that's your

listening that you really [ __ ] with me that we really be seeing each other. >> Find out like I really seen him in

Atlanta. Sat down, had some shots, caught my flight drunk as hell, ran into him at the Airbnb event in LA. Always a

good time and always in you're always in good spirits no matter what's going on. And I do want to say that I took up for

you when you were in Jamaica dancing. I was like, that's how people dance. That's what Carnival is all about. And

anybody who's ever been knows that. And I I was >> You always had my back. But every time

I've ever come in >> with you, you always are like, >> "What about bar about a bar? What about

your self-directed thing?" You have like real questions, but you have real questions for me and you really like

>> I feel the love and like I'm excited to to be, you know. >> No, I I I appreciate how real you are. I

was in Chicago in the park and I see Chance by himself. He just dropped his daughter off to school. Oh yeah. Just

leaving the park. I was like, um, is that Chance the rapper walking across the park?

>> I'm a regular [ __ ] I'll be walking around Chicago. I'm also not sweet, but I'm be just chilling. You know what I'm

saying? Like I just be chilling. I just be chilling. >> But I appreciate you and congratulations

on everything. And I can't wait to have you on lip service. >> I was going to say, yeah, we on lip

service next. >> Get in your mix. You know what I'm saying? Once I get to really live with

this album and and go through it all. Congratulations. >> Thank you. I appreciate you, Angela.

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