For the past few months, Chance The Rapper’s activity has picked up considerably, leading some to believe he’s rolling out his first major project since 2019’s The Big Day. He’s been calling his single releases “writing exercises,” dropping “Child Of God” in March and following up earlier this month with “Wraith,” which features longtime collaborator Vic Mensa. In addition, Chance popped up with a guest verse on Chicago rapper Supa Bwe’s February single “ACAB,” leading to more speculation that he’s actively working himself back into the rap spotlight.
It looks like he’ll continue the process — and slightly accelerate it — with another new release to close out the month of May. As usual, he teased the upcoming track, titled “A Bar About A Bar,” with a snippet of the song played over a video clip of Hyde Park painter Nikko Washington applying acrylics to a canvas. Chance also highlighted the finished painting in a separate tweet announcing that it’ll be on display at the Art Institute of Chicago until this Sunday.
https://twitter.com/chancetherapper/status/1529487640256471040
A Bar About a Bar (2022)
Oil & Acrylic on Canvas
me the rapper x @nikkowashington
On display at the Art Institute of Chicago tomorrow thru Sunday.
📓🎥🖼 music video tmw pic.twitter.com/WES5pBnBsF— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) May 25, 2022
If Chance truly is working toward a new album, these writing exercises could be just the sort of “back to basics” marketing rollout that will win back his goodwill among audiences and the lukewarm reception of The Big Day. Check out the teaser above.