Chance the Rapper dropped his long-awaited album Star Line last week, and the first-week sales numbers are in.
Reports reveal that the project, his first in six years, is expected to land within the top 20 on the Billboard 200 with 22,000 units sold.
Back in 2019, his debut studio album The Big Day opened strong at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, moving 108,000 units in its first week.
After a six-year hiatus, Chance the Rapper is back with his sophomore LP Star Line, packed with features from Young Thug, Jazmine Sullivan, Joey Bada$$, BJ the Chicago Kid, Jamila Woods, Vic Mensa, and more.
To celebrate the release, Chance announced the And We Back Tour, kicking off September 26 with stops in Houston, New York, Chicago, and Las Vegas, before closing out in Los Angeles on October 20.
One of the standout tracks, “Drapetomania,” finds Chance tackling immigration issues, rapping: “Tiffany fein in a blue box/401K in a shoe box/Her favorite rapper named 2Pac/Love 2Pac ’cause he shot two cops/I got a 9 millimeter called Thug Life/I got a new chain, it say ‘FUCK ICE.'”
Speaking on The Cruz Show, Chance explained the inspiration behind the chain, crediting 2Pac as a major influence:
“I feel like the radical — the ability to use your words like a sword and speak freely and to speak for people that don’t have necessarily as loud of a voice is, like, those are all things that I learned from 2Pac, who my mother made me listen to. She didn’t have to make me, but she put me on at a very young age.”
He also shared his thoughts on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids happening nationwide:
“It’s disgusting. I think we’re just in a space where people are afraid to, I guess, really fight the system. Like, this is a country that’s actually built on bloody revolutions and … radical thought and self-determination, and sometimes I think we make that such a historic thing or such a in-the-past kind of thing that we forget that, like, we’re a country built on fighting the system and fighting the power.”
