Chance the Rapper - The Big Day review

The Guardian 80

(Self-released)
The Grammy-winning darling of the US rap scene finally releases his debut album: a candid, cutesy concept album based around his wedding

On 9 March 2019, Chance the Rapper donned a white tux and married his long-term partner at a service in Newport Beach, California. The Chicago star’s long-awaited debut album is a confetti shower of sweet-hearted hip-hop forged in the fulsome emotion of that day. A wedding ring gleams on its cover and comic skits threaded throughout the record pull you inside a riotous reception, as the rapper, real name Chancelor Bennett, reckons with his journey to marriage and the leap into adulthood it represents. “Took the scenic route but this is the way,” he reflects as The Big Day gets into gear, nodding to his and wife Kirsten Corley’s rocky road to matrimony (the pair split in 2016, entering into a legal dispute over their daughter Kensli before reconciling and announcing their engagement last year).

What follows is an album that, true to tradition, combines something old and something new, subtly expanding Chance’s sound without ever straying too far from the sentimental gospel-pop heart of his last release, Coloring Book, which won the Grammy for best rap album in 2017.