News

Chance The Rapper & The Social Experiment Announce Free Project, ‘Surf’

blame it on Meka October 21, 2014

chance-the-rapper-live-thumb
Photo: SMH Imaging.

Today has just been a busy on the news front. First Chief Keef got waived by his old label, while Mac Miller signed to a new one. Now, Chance the Rapper has announced that he and his band The Social Experiment will release Surf, a free project, before year’s end!

During a sit down with Billboard in which the Chicago native breaks down the idea behind the hate-filled “No Better Blues” and revealing he’s over performing material off his break-out project, Acid Rap, Chance offers some information on what’s to come.

Read a few choice quotes below and check the entire interview here.

On Surf:

We’re working really closely with Francis Starlite from Francis and the Lights. He’s been a really been a big help on Surf. Damn, I’m saying these things like people know it. Surf is the first project, which is coming out before the end of 2014. It’s the first Social Experiment project. It’s a big step for all of us all putting our heads together and letting Nico [Segal, a.k.a Donnie Trumpet] hold the reigns and carry it. There’s a lot of great instrumentation. A lot of input from cool writers. I’m already saying too much.

On who they’ve worked with:

Well, we worked with Migos. We worked with J. Cole. We did some work with Emily King just last week. Somebody who helped us out a lot with just getting into the project was Rick Rubin. And Frank Ocean. There’s been a lot of just people in the studio watching us work almost like a house band. People come in just to watch us jam out.

On what’s next:

Well, that’s the whole thing. For one, obviously, I’m in a band. The band has been backing me on a lot of the shows, so when you go to a Chance the Rapper show it’s billed as a Chance the Rapper show, and even though you bought a ticket for a Chance the Rapper show, you end up going to a Social Experiment concert, you know? And you get the full experience of the musicality of four seasoned players. It’s something different. It’s something new. It’s a bit of theater. It’s a culmination of going to all these dope concerts and seeing cool Broadway plays. A lot of influence has come from The Lion King musical. You could probably tell if you listen to “Arthur.” We’ve been trying to take in all these cool, different outside cultural experiences and make that into a free listenable project. That’s the new thing.

We have an idea for what we want to do next year following [the release] of Surfand [another project entitled] SOX and everything else that is to come. We’ve been really, really focused on The Lion King musical and stage design and use of props in the theater setting and trying to make a very cool musical-kinda thing. Like musical theater. So we’re working on that. It’s still in the development process. I’m really excited; the band’s really excited. But the way the show goes right now we’ve made it a little more refreshing. We’ve been playing newer records like “Paradise” and “Gold” and “No Better Blues” and “Windows.” Just shit that people haven’t really heard and giving them a new experience.

So, what about that joint EP with Childish Gambino?

RELATED: Lil Herb – Fight Or Flight (Remix) f. Common & Chance the Rapper (Video)