The other day Chance The Rapper and his Social Experiment band hit us with a new jam "No Better Blues." As it turns out, Chance has been working on a lot more music, not to mention, a new album (or three).
The rapper who broke out with his Acid Rap mixtape has been relatively low-key since then, despite his stock rising way up. He's yet to ink a major label, choosing to remain independent, and do things entirely his way-- which means involving his live band The Social Experiment in every aspect of his career.
In a new interview with Billboard, Chance reveals that he's been putting in a lot of work with The Social Experiment apart from just "No Better Blues." They apparently have several projects on the way, the first of which is an album called Surf. Surf will highlight The Social Experiment's resident trumpet player, Donnie Trumpet (aka Nico Segal), and it'll be a free release to drop before the year's end.
Chance says of the project, "We're working really closely with Francis Starlite from Francis and the Lights. He's been a really been a big help on Surf. Damn, I'm saying these things like people know it. Surf is the first project, which is coming out before the end of 2014. It's the first Social Experiment project. It's a big step for all of us all putting our heads together and letting Nico [Segal, a.k.a Donnie Trumpet] hold the reigns and carry it. There's a lot of great instrumentation. A lot of input from cool writers. I'm already saying too much."
He also lets go some of the names he's been collaborating with on these projects, "Well, we worked with Migos. We worked with J. Cole. We did some work with Emily King just last week. Somebody who helped us out a lot with just getting into the project was Rick Rubin. And Frank Ocean. There's been a lot of just people in the studio watching us work almost like a house band. People come in just to watch us jam out."
As for what will come after Surf, Chance says, "We have an idea for what we want to do next year following [the release] of Surf and [another project entitled] SOX and everything else that is to come. We've been really, really focused on The Lion King musical and stage design and use of props in the theater setting and trying to make a very cool musical-kinda thing. Like musical theater. So we're working on that. It's still in the development process. I'm really excited; the band's really excited. But the way the show goes right now we've made it a little more refreshing. We've been playing newer records like "Paradise" and "Gold" and "No Better Blues" and "Windows." Just shit that people haven't really heard and giving them a new experience."
Are you excited to hear what Chance and The Social Experiment have in store?