In early 2021, it seemed like Chance The Rapper was gearing up to release a new project, one that would be his first release since 2017’s The Big Day. He kicked off the year with the reflective “The Heart & The Tongue,” and prior to that, he returned with “Shelter” alongside Vic Mensa. The latter stood as the Chicago rappers’ first collaboration in years, and while Mensa has delivered multiple projects since then, Chance has not. Maybe 2022 is the year for a new body of work from Chance, but that remains to be seen. Until then, we can enjoy his newest single with help from painter Naila Opiangah and singer Moses Sumney.
Together, the trio arrives with “Child Of God,” a mellow track that sports bare-bone production which allows Chance the show off his rap skills. He uses his bars to look back on simpler times in a world that tends to be very complicated. The track also arrives with vocals from Moses Sumney and an accompanying music video that captures Chance rapping the lyrics to the song as Opiangah paints what turns out to be the song’s cover art on a large canvas beside him.
Chance premiered the video at the Museum of Contemporary Art where he spoke about his next project and what could be expected from it. “They all come from a space of me finally feeling empowered and me finally feeling ready to go speak on all the things that I think about,” he said about the project’s songs according to the Chicago Sun-Times. “This project does explore a lot darker themes than I have in the past couple of projects. But, it’s all still from a place of understanding that it’s all a process.”
“Child Of God” arrives after he reconnected with his SaveMoney crew earlier this month to release “Bag Boy,” their first song in eight years. Prior to that, he reunited with Supa Bwe for “ACAB” and also teased an upcoming song with Vic Mensa.
You can listen to “Child Of God” in the video above.