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Hip-Hop Lives Here
Chance the Rapper‘s long-awaited sophomore album, Star Line Gallery, finally has a release date… ballpark.
The Chicago rapper took to Instagram Live on Friday (December 22) to make the announcement, and also had a bit of fun at his followers’ expense.
“My album’s coming out next spring!” he said, while noting that there were only “about 500 people” in the live online session.
“Nobody loves it when I’m doin’ good work, for real!” he snarked. Check out the clip below.
Chance The Rapper announces 2024 release timeframe for long awaited "Star Line Gallery"https://t.co/3Yh0bOWXIApic.twitter.com/F4BaZtyBxE
— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) December 22, 2023
Chance the Rapper has been hyping up Star Line Gallery for quite some time, though fans hadn’t had any sort of timeline on its release until now.
Over the summer, the Acid Rap hitmaker hyped up his upcoming LP with full confidence, writing: “It’s merched I got the best next album outta all the n-ggas that have a next album [three weeping emojis].”
“Merched” is Chicago slang for “proven,” so Chance seems fully confident in the statement. This is a particularly bold claim considering his full-length release was widely panned by fans and the media.
However, he has since dropped a string of successful singles, as well as a joint project with Jeremih, so an impactful comeback via the upcoming Star Line Gallery is indeed likely.
In early June, the Chi-town native phoned in to Audacy Check In to provide an update on the follow-up to 2019’s The Big Day.
“It’s one of my proudest projects in terms of writing and artistic vision,” he said. “There’s an immense amount of work to be done with it. But it’s cool ’cause I feel like the love and intentionality that goes into making each physical art piece allows me to show people in these museum spaces what I’m working on as I go, the highs and the lows, kind of like a preview to the project…”
The album title shares its name with Chance and Vic Mensa’s festival in Ghana. The Black Star Line Festival took place in Accra’s Black Star Square, also known as Independence Square, in early January 2023.
During an interview on Sway in the Morning last year, he broke down the deeper meaning behind Star Line Gallery.
“I was inspired by Marcus Garvey in the early 1900s, 1919 through actually 1922, so 100 years ago now,” he said. “He started and ran this very important, integral shipping line. He had a fleet of ships, these giant ocean liners which are the size of cruise ships, that he owned and funded with common Black folks’ money.”
He continued: “But what he did with it was he created a trade route between the United States, all of the Black islands and the continent of Africa, and that created a network of people where people from all over the world were interconnected and working with each other and taking trips together and created this connectivity that didn’t exist before.”
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Jennie has officially been announced as the Saturday headliner for this year’s Open'er Festival.
The annual Polish festival will take place from July 1 through July 4 in Gdynia, with this year’s lineup also featuring The Cure, Calvin Harris, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Florence + The Machine, The xx, David Byrne and more.
The K pop superstar is set to headline the Orange Main Stage on July 4. Festival organisers also confirmed additional acts including Viagra Boys, who will perform on the Alter Stage on July 1, and Luvcat, who joins the lineup on July 4.
The announcement adds to an already packed summer schedule for Jennie, who is also set to appear at Mad Cool Festival, Lollapalooza and Governors Ball Music Festival this year.
In a statement shared by festival organisers, they praised the artist’s global impact and influence within pop culture.
“Jennie Kim is one of the most influential female artists of the era. Since debuting with BLACKPINK in 2016, the Korean singer, rapper, and fashion icon has amassed over 55million monthly listeners on Spotify and nearly 90million followers on Instagram. She continues to shape global trends and remains a dominant figure in pop culture.”
The statement concluded: “Wanna rock like Jennie? You got it. See you at Orange Main Stage, July 4!”
Last year, Jennie released her debut solo album ‘Ruby’. In a four star review, NME described the project as “a bold, self-assured debut”, with critic Crystal Bell writing that the album sees Jennie fully take control of her image and artistry after years of public scrutiny.
The review added that with ‘Ruby’, Jennie establishes herself not only as a global star but also as “a fully realised artist” with a clear creative vision and growing artistic confidence.
Earlier this year, BLACKPINK also announced their new mini album ‘Deadline’, marking the group’s third EP and their biggest release since 2022’s full length album ‘Born Pink’.
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