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Chance the Rapper‘s had quite the month.
On Aug. 2, he made a surprise appearance at Lollapalooza. On the 11th, he announced his upcoming And We Back Tour. On the 15th, he released his second studio album, Star Line, a project six years in the making. And on Aug. 19, Chance the Rapper, alongside Kristin Chenoweth, Hasan Minhaj and others, teamed on a playful social campaign to celebrate the launch of Acrobat Studio, a brand-new tool from Adobe that’s near and dear to the three-time Grammy winner’s heart.
The Chicago-born rapper chatted with The Hollywood Reporter about his unexpected songwriting process, the journey to Star Line and how creating his very own Adobe Acrobat PDF has brought him even closer to fans.
Congratulations on your new album. The reception’s been insane.
Yeah, it’s been a lot of love. I’m really, really proud of the work. I haven’t gotten to see a lot of the online reviews, but I’ve been doing a lot of in-person stuff. When I was a kid, the people that were really big deals to me — MC Hammer and Master P, and then a little bit later, Nipsey Hussle — did this thing called “trunk trapping,” where they would sell CDs or records out of their trunk and go across the country to meet fans or create fans in person. So, I’ve been on that really, really heavy, but when I get to people, they’re the ones that tell me like, “Yo, everybody on the internet loves this and you’re getting a great reception,” but I think what I value the most are the stories that people have been sharing with me over the last weeks, not just about this project, but really personal beautiful moments.
Yeah, I bet reviews can be kind of all-consuming, so it’s probably a nice way to experience the response, seeing it in real life. And you put so much into this album, obviously it took a long time. Tell me about that process.
Because I’ve spent so much time with visual artists making the album, I learned a lot from their practices. And one of the things they do that I think is so cool is called “residency,” where they’re holed up in some foreign space and they’re just creating hella works every day. And that series has an overarching thesis to it or title that connects all these pieces. And even though the pieces are different, they all speak to that one thesis.
As I was in residency, whether it was in Ghana or Jamaica or Paris or Venice, I was really picking up hella knowledge. You know, my worldview is as a Black, Christian millennial from Chicago in 2025, and throughout my life, the only thing that changes is the year. I feel like me going to certain places [helped me] learn the histories and interconnectedness of Black populations globally. I had such an American-centric viewpoint of everything because that was all I understood and experienced, that I didn’t really realize that there are so many parallels and intersections of, excuse my French, but shit being fucked up … I’m trying to think of a better way to say that.
No, that’s perfect.
But learning that and learning the recent histories of all these powers and nations and systems really, really kept recentering the project. So any time I got too far out and was like, “OK, but the project needs a dance record,” I’d be like, “you know, every song you can dance to, but what is the concept?” Every song on the project started with a title before I wrote any words, so I would conceptually attack each song.
Like, OK, this song is going to be called “Drapetomania,” and I know what I want it to mean, but the first version of it started out on a romantic disco kind of beat, and then the second one was more like Yeat — I don’t know if you listen to Yeat, but Yeat’s beats are crazy — and then the third one was a little more like grunge trap, is the best way I could describe it … heavy metal-inspired trap. Then, finally I got to the place that we’re at now, which is heavily influenced by Houston and Atlanta hip-hop, and New Chicago, which is a genre that’s burgeoning right now in the city. And each one of those had different verses, different cadences, different hooks, but they were all always going to be “Drapetomania.”
That’s so interesting. I’ve never heard that before, but it totally makes sense. Also, it’s funny, I always write my headlines before I write my stories.
Facts! Yeah, you need a concept. I grew up in poetry programs and afterschool, fucking, open mics — I don’t even know how to describe it, but a lot of the rappers that came out of Chicago in my generation were in this afterschool program together — and we really learned to, I guess, admire and respect and play with the written word.
I think the thing that taught us the most in terms of how to create intentionally was… they call them “prompts.” Basically, we would have 20 minutes to write a poem or a rap or a reaction to a prompt, which would be something like, “Describe heartbreak from the perspective of a chair,” or “The first thing I’ll say to my child is…” And we’re 14, you know what I’m saying, we’re kids.
That is not what I expected. I thought it was going to be a little lighter. That’s intense.
Yeah, no, we were really intense kids. We were like rocking keffiyehs and being hardcore Occupy Wall Street. We were the kids that were thirsty for real interaction and confrontation with the system as children.
“Heartbreak from the perspective of a chair” I feel like that could be a song title.
And that’s what I’m saying. I don’t want to speak for everybody’s writing process, but for me at least, I grew up with ADHD and certain organizational management issues, so when working within a structure and knowing what the painting is supposed to look like in my head when I’m done, I can create and create and create. And then I look at it and say, “OK, well maybe it’s not done.” I learned that from working with painters: It’s not done until it’s done. And I might have to add some more coats or start on a whole new canvas, but at least I know what I’m working towards. And at a certain point, I’m going to step back and put my hands on my hips and look at it and I’ll be like, perfect.
That makes so much sense. And the organizational struggles seem to tie into your latest partnership with Adobe.
Yeah, I grew up with a lot of issues with organization. My locker used to have stuff spilling out of it, and my backpack was never with me at school. And I always had lofty ideas, and I was trying to start my rap career while I was in school too, so I had all these different things going on. And what I love about all the creative tools that Adobe puts out, but especially Acrobat Studio, is that you can really organize your thoughts and share with people in a way that is digestible and actionable.
I write notes all day — I’m an Apple Notes fiend — but even though I’m typing it, it ends up looking like chicken scratch, so what I really, really love about the partnership is that it’s all in the idea of — at an administrative and organizational level — supporting artists, creatives and people that have to put their thoughts to paper and share them.
I really love the PDF that we put out because it answers a lot of questions that, to me, sometimes sound like, “Well, duh, I’ve been doing this shit. You saw me do a festival in Ghana for free, or you saw me do all of these videos being self-directed or doing the ‘Writings on the Walls’ with fans.” All those things would point to, yes, he wants some more personal relationships with his fans, and yes, he wants to build global community, and yes, he wants to create more visually impactful content or media or songs or whatever you want to call it, but everybody doesn’t know that. And so to be able to put together a document that really lives with the project and breaks down a lot of the influences and a lot of the themes, people can really see the why and the how.
Totally. It’s kind of like an accompanying journal, and because it has that overview feature, if you just have a second to look at it, you can kind of absorb it quickly, or you can go more in depth and learn about your journey over the last six years.
A hundred percent. And I think this is a journey that my really, really, really close fans took with me in a lot of ways. I have fans that know every single song and snippet and appearance and commentary that I’ve had over the years that really point towards what this album means and can see it through that lens. And then I have really, really, really close personal fans that have been to a bunch of shows, and just [because] the way that media and algorithms and life work, they don’t necessarily have that context, so I think this is a really good tool that will help people get that one little push towards being able to say, “Aha!”
Check out Chance the Rapper’s personal PDF, The Road to Star Line, and create your own with the brand-new Adobe Acrobat Studio, transforming documents into shareable, AI-powered PDF Spaces. Early-access pricing ends Oct. 31.