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After a three year wait, The 23 year-old Chicago bred rapper who used a ten day suspension from high school to record his first mixtape, Chance The Rapper, dropped his third official mixtape and work of magic, ‘Coloring Book’ on Apple Music on May 12th, 2016. The man himself graced Jimmy Fallon’s stage earlier this month with a colorful gospel choir that lit up the hearts of the audience anticipating a glimpse into one of 2016’s most highly anticipated releases and the most influential album of the year. Jam-packed with big-league collaborations including Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Jeremih, Justin Bieber, Jay Electronica, T-Pain, Future, and Saba to name a few, ‘Coloring Book’ carries the potential to morph into the biggest success of Chance The Rapper’s career. For example, the mixtape’s opener, “All We Got”, featuring one of Chance’s idol’s, Kanye West, spreads instant sunshine as Chance’s overjoyed vocal delivery coalesced with gospel singers delivers a potent message to the youth to give your passion and desires all that you’ve got, straight from the heart. Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz drops in over the mixtape’s second track, “No Problem”, which is a straight from the gut message to all of the record labels double-dealin’ Chance and getting caught red-handed actin’ a fool when is comes to the progression of the new father’s career.
The third track, “Summer Friends”, grows on you as you drift away into doing whatever hipsters do as Chance switches it up from rapping to high-pitched soulful singing. The lyrics, “Are you ready for your blessings?” and “Are you ready for your miracle?” over the album’s fifth track, “Blessings” deliver a twist straight into the heart with a dagger full of passion, ambition, motivation and inspiration. If you’re looking for an artist’s bandwagon to jump on, the mixtape’s eighth track, “Angels”, is full of phenomenal instrumentation, catchy ad-libs, and a masterpiece of a music video to go with it. The buzz leading up to the big release caught hold of Chance’s heart as the legendary Jay Electronica drops in for a feature over the eleventh track, “How Great”, where floodgates spread wide open with lyrical bombs being dropped such as Jay’s, “I build the ark to gently, gently row my boat down Noah’s stream”, which features the flow of a nursery rhyme that is eternally imbedded into our minds. Creeping up to the finish line, the mixtape’s longest song and thirteenth track, “Finish Line/Drown”, features T-Pain and notable up-and-coming artists preaching of days in which they dreamed of being in the position in which they are in today. Although both fans and rap critics loved him then and have continued to do so now, Chance has stepped up his game and is outgrowing the feeling of being lost in acid skies and throwing war paint all across the rap landscape. Chance certainly laced up his J’s, put his creative idiosyncrasies onto the pad with a pen and shot nothing but net; check out ‘Coloring Book’ currently available worldwide on Apple Music and catch Chance changing the world and inspiring little boys and girls all over the world.
