Chance the Rapper knows Minnesota has 'the' state fair to play. It's one of his only 2024 gigs.

The Chicago hip-hop star is offering his fellow Midwesterners at the grandstand a preview of his bold new "Star Line" project.

By Chris Riemenschneider Star Tribune

August 12, 2024 — 7:00am

It's not often that platinum-selling, Grammy-winning music stars remember the writers in other cities who interviewed them early in their careers. Chance the Rapper, however, vividly remembers who interviewed him backstage in Minneapolis in 2012.

"I sat down with a fabulous young lady who was a great interviewer, who knew all my songs and came early to the show," the hip-hop stalwart remembers. "It was one of the first times I did a real backstage-for-print kind of interview."

And then came the big reveal: "That interviewer was Lizzo, who became one of the greatest recording artists in the world."

Talking by phone from his home in Chicago last month, Chance used that story about the "Good as Hell" hitmaker — who was working her way up through the Twin Cities music scene at the time, and interviewing Chance for the upstart Greenroom magazine — to help explain how Minnesota got hella lucky to land one of the only dates on his concert calendar this year.

Specifically, he chose the Minnesota State Fair, where he's scheduled to perform Friday, Aug. 23, one of the clear standouts in this year's grandstand concert series lineup.

It's not just another random gig for Chance. For starters, he knows all about our fair's good reputation.

"I hear it's the state fair," he said. "Texas has a big one, too. But if you are going to play a state fair, Minnesota is the one to play, right?"

Most of Chance's fans know he's been on a bit of a hiatus following his stint as a coach on NBC's "The Voice" last year, another reason this is a big gig for him.

Aside from a pair of theater gigs in Chicago in April, Chance's only other performances in 2024 have been popup multimedia events in front of small audiences at art museums in other cities, where visual art, videos and other genres have been blended in with songs from his long-awaited new album, "Star Line" — his first since 2019′s aptly titled "The Big Day."

There's no release date for the new record, though. In fact, it's not even done yet.

"It's been like a cross-pollination thing," he said, blaming/crediting the heavy role those other art forms are playing in this album's creation.

"I'm a fan of a lot of visual artists. I've been traveling and meeting with different artists. They'll come to my studio. I'll go to their studio. We'll have conversations. I'll play them some music, and they'll either cling to an idea that isn't finished yet and we'll work on the pieces in tandem, or we'll come up with a whole new idea. It's produced probably 30 pieces."

Chance said he will perform some of the unreleased songs at the fair show. He has also been sporadically releasing new tracks targeted for the new record in recent months.

The latest tune to drop is a laid-back, cocksure groover called "Stars Out," which harks back to his feel-good anthems on "The Big Day." It offers a hint of why Chance — who has also been raising two daughters at home — hasn't rushed into returning to touring or trying to repeat the success he obtained in the 2010s starting with his breakout mixtape, "Acid Rap."

"The hook is really dedicated to ending the boilerplate idea of success or what I should be worried about at this time of my life," he explained (referring to lines like: "You so scared I'm 'bout to pull my cars out/ 'Bout to pull my bars out/ You so worried 'bout some charts/ You don't know I'm about to pull the stars out").

His track that came out before that, the DJ Premier collaboration "Together," was another one tinged with personal emotions about the vital roles extended families and surroundings play in our upbringings.

One line from "Together" drummed up some media attention beyond the music press. The South Side native — whose dad worked for Barack Obama as a state senator and later in his presidency — calls on the developers of the Obama Presidential Library in his old neighborhood to agree to a community benefits agreement (CBA).

"We need CBA, CBA, CBA, Barry," Chance raps, "before they build another golf course, library or send an eminent domain to Miss Mary."

Chance explained further: "A lot of organizers and community activists have been trying to get [a CBA] to regulate against property tax increase and programs so people don't get priced out or displaced. It's just one of many developments where the community really doesn't have much say in it."

That's a much more serious example of Chance using his stardom and influence for good, which he showed in more trivial but high-profile ways as a coach on "The Voice." He said he's glad he appeared on the televised music competition.

"I was a little bit nervous going into it," he admitted. "I'm not a vocalist. I sing in my songs, but I'm not trained to be a singer.

"Where I got to shine and make a difference — as opposed to other shows like 'American Idol' or 'America's Got Talent' — was being able to be a coach for these artists, getting to spend a lot of time basically being a producer for the singer, helping pick the songs they should sing and learning their influences. I created some good relationships out of that and some good TV moments. And it introduced me to a new crowd."

However, he was quick to add: "I'd do it again, but not right now. I'm all about my new music right now."

Chance billed this State Fair gig as another step toward the release of "Star Line" — a step back toward the performance ring that started when he co-hosted the Star Line Festival in Ghana with Vic Mensa last year to mingle American musicmakers with African stars.

He will likely take the stage a lot more next year with a full-scale tour — and a whole lot more, he said.

"There will be different iterations of events around the album. I'll definitely do a tour for it, but I'll also do other formats of in-person events, things in gallery spaces and more immersive experiences for fans to get into the album.

"Music moves so fast, and there's so much constant output, I'm trying to give people more stuff to go through so they don't just listen to the album a few times and feel like they got everything out of it."