After Chance the Rapper performed “All We Got” and a cover of Drake’s “Feel No Ways” for BBC Radio 1Xtra’s Live Lounge yesterday, Chano sat down with the radio station’s DJ Semtex for their first sit-down interview.
The conversation started with who his first rap influence was, and it’s Kanye West. That led to talking about how he met him (Jaden Smith introduced him at Made in America LA) and how he worked with him on The Life of Pablo.
Chance said the album was complete at 10 songs when he came to work, buy Kanye wanted songs to drop for the reboot of G.O.O.D. Fridays. So they popped on music for influence (Chance said: “How can you be a great scientist of mathematician if you ignore all the past work”) and started making music.
He also explained the overall type of mood he likes to make with chords. “Kanye likes dissonance,” he said. “You know, chordal dissonance. He likes minor chords and stuff that has a little pain behind it.”
Ultimately he said of the song: “Having that feeling of exalting and praise and worship that was not there previously, it opening up the album to be everything else that it could be.”
Chance and Semtex also talked about Donald Trump, to which Chance said he wasn’t surprised he’d win. “Anybody in the world who’s surprised by the election of Donald Trump has been ignorant of racism and the tides and patterns of American history,” he said. “America is much bigger than where our media outlets are.”
The pair then picked the mood up and Chance revealed he’s working on his debut album — maybe. “I think what I’m working on now is an album,” he clarified, saying the music he’s working on now feels like it’s in the beginning stages of something that everyone can sing along to.
(P.S. Chance canceled his final two European tour dates for “personal reasons.” Just yesterday while performing for BBC Radio 1Xtra, he said he might go home early before Thanksgiving to support Kanye West after he was hospitalized.)
Watch the 30-minute interview below.
