If Chance The Rapper is experiencing a career redemption arc, it’s unclear whether he recognizes it. On August 15, the release date of his sophomore album, Star Line, he joins a Zoom call from his hometown of Chicago. This album marks his first major release since his 2019 debut LP, The Big Day, which did not perform well, commercially. As a result, there is a lot at stake for him. However, rather than dwelling on grand comeback narratives or seeking revenge on anonymous critics, Chance provides a refreshingly practical perspective on the goals for his new project.
“The most important thing that Chance The Rapper could be putting his pen to is not always necessarily proving the haters wrong,” the rapper explains. “What I did with my project is I made a lot of people who loved me happy and put out a project that they could live with for a long time.”
After Chancelor Bennett used his innate dexterity and panoramic altruism to break out with projects like 10 Day (2012) and Acid Rap (2013), the Midwest MC took home the 2017 Grammy for Best Rap Album for the 2016 mixtape Coloring Book. By winning a gramophone with a free project, Chance helped rewrite music industry norms. That same year, his guest appearance on DJ Khaled’s “I’m The One,” also featuring Lil Wayne, Quavo and Justin Bieber, hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Chance’s increasing presence in pop culture and his musical output have set a high standard for him. Unfortunately, he fell short with his debut album, The Big Day, which led some critics and even fans to conclude that he was more valuable for memes than for music. The release of his new project, Star Line, feels like a stage for a fairytale comeback. However, for Chance, simply creating good and impactful music is the best way to make a comeback—perhaps the only way.
After experiencing a divorce from Kirsten Corley, the mother of his two children, last year, Chance has taken time to reflect on himself and his life. “I spent time learning about community, learning about myself, learning my self-worth,” he shares. “Now, at 32, I could say I understand myself and the world a lot better.”
Chance learned a lot while he wasn’t dropping new music. “I’ve probably been the busiest I’ve ever been,” he says. He nods to a series of self-directed music videos he released independently and his 2021 concert film, Magnificent Coloring World, as proof of his productivity. Ditto for the Black Star Line culture festival he launched and hosted alongside Vic Mensa in Ghana two years ago.
Those side missions are just part of the sprawling creativity and DIY ethos that’s powered Chance’s career since the moment a school suspension led him to craft his first mixtape. “One of the best parts about being independent is being able to chart your own path and decide [your own schedule],” Chance tells. “It allows you a lot of time to show your greatness in other spaces.”
Outside of business hours, Chance has been coparenting his two daughters, Kensli, 10, and Marli, 6, as he adjusts to life post-divorce. He and his now ex-wife announced their plans for divorce last April, and Corley filed the official paperwork that December. When Chance hasn’t been recalibrating his home life, he’s kicked back with audio engineers in his studio’s home theater to watch flicks like Megalopolis or video essays from YouTube creator F.D Signifier.
Additionally, Chance helped reopen Chicago’s Ramova Theater in 2023, alongside Quincy Jones, Jennifer Hudson, and 49 other investors. While it’s nominally an 1,800-person concert venue that’s hosted acts like ScHoolboy Q and Scarface, Chance used it for phone banking, and it’s been rented out for various local events.
And then, of course, there’s the music. Chance doesn’t remember the exact start date, but recording sessions for Star Line began in 2019. And there have been a lot of them. On Sundays, he keeps his skills sharp by joining Zoom meetings with other producers and rappers, such as Jean Deaux, Mick Jenkins and Saba, for virtual writing bootcamps called 16s chapel: write a strong 16-bar verse in 16 minutes.
Chance often found himself reimagining songs he had already recorded. Every day, he spent time reflecting on his work. Over the past three years, there were moments when it seemed he might abandon the project, yet he never set a release date. He attributes the delay to his meticulous nature. “I create a lot like a painter. I work on stuff over time,” Chance explains. “There isn’t a single song on that album where both verses were made on the same day or even in the same month, in most cases.”
He toiled away at his latest opus outside the glow of the mainstream spotlight. At least one friend noticed how the words of critics and gossip folks weighed on him. “Chance has always had this reckless, relentless optimism and a real buoyant spirit, the thing that people recognize and love in his music,” says his old friend Vic Mensa, who joins Chance on the album cut “Back to the Go.” “In some of these years, I’ve seen darker elements of his personality. Just sadness and struggle and depression and the real meat and bones underbelly of human experience.” There’s no concrete reward for being traumatized, but Mensa says public scrutiny pushed Chance to new artistic peaks. “It’s low-key made him write some of the dopest sh*t he’s ever written.”
Chance has said Star Line was inspired by travels abroad, but it’s rooted in the energy of his Chicago hometown. Buoyed by his reassuring, melodious baritone and embedded with smooth verses from local legends Do or Die, “Ride” could soundtrack a cruise down Lake Shore Drive or a trip in the Magic School Bus. Laced with a sinister piano loop, “Drapetomania” is a kinetic exercise in playful Chi-town drill, with Chance matching the matter-of-fact decisiveness of rising local star BabyChiefDoit.
But Chance isn’t just connecting with the new generation or foundational pillars of the Windy City’s rap yesteryear. He’s linking up with fellow local heroes, who are friends, like Mensa, BJ The Chicago Kid and Jamila Woods, too.
On a technical level, Chance looked to embody Lupe Fiasco’s political fury and magical command of sensory detail. With tracks like “Star Side Intro,” he lays out a proverbial death and resurrection narrative of his career. It’s one laced with acts of charity, powerful flexes and his customary rap pyrotechnics. “The last time that my check got commas/My whips got horses, my chains got blinders/Teachers got laptops, the kids got binders/Celebrity barber, but my stars all lined up/The three went platinum, the one went diamond/I had a F-minus, but that’s behind us,” Chance raps on the track, with the final line in the stanza soaring like an exhale.
Star Line is more reflective than vindictive, which was a thematic imperative for Chance when completing the project. Elsewhere on the album, he raps about depression and lost innocence (“No More Old Men” with Jamila Woods). For the latter, Chance’s somber hook hovers like a lone, suspended balloon above the Chicago skyline.
Part rebirth and perhaps part eulogy for his past self, Star Line eschews the cloying, meandering nature of The Big Day, rendering his thoughts with the agility, clarity and melodic coloring that helped make him a star more than a decade ago. Star Line isn’t a major commercial triumph—it debuted at No. 22 on the Billboard 200 albums chart—but it’s gotten favorable reviews from critics and fans alike.
Mick Jenkins, who partakes in the 16s chapel sessions with Chance and has known him since Chance called out Mick for spitting pre-written verses during a freestyle session outside of the Chicago Public Library over 15 years ago, nods to Chance’s new music as a promise fulfilled.
“The direction that music went [with The Big Day] wasn’t what a lot of his fans wanted, and they let them know that they didn’t like that music,” Jenkins conveys. “I think that’s a part of why people are so excited about this music now. It’s a lot better. [Star Line] feels like a return to something that Chance has championed and is really good at.”
Chance says he feels lighter now that his new album is out in the world. “Whenever you’re deep in the creative process, at a certain point it starts to take toll on your schedule, your body, your relationships, just ways of thinking,” he says during a follow-up phone call from Chicago O’Hare International Airport three days after the album’s release. “You’re going back to the stuff that you wrote days ago, months ago, years ago and reevaluating it. And then, once it’s out and it’s like a flat thing, you get to really see it for the finalized, executed beauty that it is.”
Walking through the streets of Chicago after his album dropped, Chance can feel Star Line come to life; he recalls hearing two cars play “Ride.” In a city marred by the more recent deaths of Juice Wrld and King Von, and the arrest of Lil Durk, he’s not lost on the significance of his return to his hometown, where he once donated $1 million to support public schools. “I think people are glad that somebody is being celebrated and recognized for telling our stories and the whole story,” Chance affirms. “It gives people a sense of nostalgia to feel a win.”
Now, the award-winning artist is looking ahead. He wants to continue his Writings on the Wall series, which he launched in 2024. Chance calls it an audio-visual presentation with lighting and projections that has allowed thousands of fans to experience his new album in a more immersive fashion. His goal is to bring that exhibit to thousands more.
On past songs like “Paradise,” he rapped about potentially running for mayor of Chicago— maybe that’ll happen one day—but these days, he’s focused on building his rap constituency. “What I feel brave in and feel like I have is an incredibly sharp and lethal sword: writing raps and doing interviews,” he offers.
He’s on the road again, too. September kicked off Chance’s We Back Tour, a 15-city trek going from Houston to Los Angeles. “I’m really excited to meet new people,” he says. He wants to reconnect with longtime fans, too. “It’s been six years since I dropped [The Big Day], so I meet fans that are like, ‘I was in fourth or fifth grade when you dropped it. I’m in high school now.’” The rap ace will be meeting and greeting through October.
While he brings his sound to the stage, Chance also has a legal battle on his hands. Five years ago, his former manager, Pat Corcoran, hit Chance with a $3 million lawsuit for allegedly failing to honor their work agreement. Chance, who initially fired Corcoran after the release of The Big Day, then filed his own lawsuit a year later, alleging that Corcoran “breached his fiduciary responsibilities.”
The back-and-forth has only continued, with Corcoran demanding to be paid for the unpaid royalties stipulated by a verbal agreement with Chance. In March, an Illinois judge denied Chance’s motion for a summary judgment in the matter, so the case is now headed to trial. At press time, no date has been set, but Chance’s legal team has continued to deny that there is any validity to Corcoran’s case.
In a legal sense, Chance will have to prove himself in court. Outside of it, he seems more invested in leveling up his craft than things as petty as proving people wrong—even if he understands why fans would want him to do so. For supporters who grew up with Chance, it was hard to live with internet gossip and claims of a fall off. The hope is, for now, they won’t have to.
“When people felt like people were playing with my name, it hurt them,” Chance says. “[They] wanted me to put out a body of work that would feel like I was stepping on the haters. I always want to do right by the people that love me.”
Sifting through fresh inspiration, Chance The Rapper’s latest era feels like a clear answer to that challenge.
The fall 2025 issue of XXL magazine featuring Chance The Rapper’s interview is available to purchase here. The issue also includes Joey Bada$$ and J.I.D’s cover story interviews, conversations with Hit-Boy, Chance The Rapper, Rob49, KenTheMan, Bay Swag, Curren$y, Wallo267, Hurricane Wisdom, Hanumankind, Babyfxce E, Ghostface Killah, Conway The Machine, Pluto, TiaCorine, singer Isaiah Falls, comedian Josh Joshson, Vice President of Music at SiriusXM and Pandora Joshua “J1” Raiford, a look at the change in album rollouts over the years highlighted by Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out album and more.
