Chance The Rapper: The Chicago rap heavyweight’s ‘Star Line’ arrives this month
Dear Summer - Chance The Rapper’s back-back. Turns out after what feels like forever the Chicago rap heavyweight’s Star Line studio effort is slated to arrive in the coming days - giddy up.
Chance The Rapper’s ‘Star Line’ album drops August 15
While the summer is quickly wrapping up, turns out Chance is determined to keep the heat blazing well into the fall courtesy of his much-needed newest studio offering set to come out mid-August.
Grammy-winner and global independent innovator Chance the Rapper has officially announced the release date of Star Line, his most ambitious and personal project to date, arriving August 15. Star Line reflects Chance’s global journey, artistically, spiritually, and physically, over the past six years. Created with longtime producer DexLvL and shaped by travels to Ghana, Jamaica, and art fairs around the world, Star Line blends hip-hop, soul, and experimental sounds with lyrical meditations on identity, resilience, and legacy. While Chance has circled the globe in search of new perspectives, the project remains grounded in the worldview that has always defined his art: a deep, unshakable connection to Chicago and to Black culture across the diaspora.
Star Line is available now for CD pre-order at Chancestuff.com, alongside the special Star Line Shipping Co. merch collection. Each item in the Shipping Co. merch collection, as well as the CDs, feature a built-in NFC chip that has Star Line content. Merch purchases include exclusive Star Line content through the NFC, while the CD comes with a download of the album. Additional merch drops and activations will be announced soon.Learn how to use the NFC Technology via the below videos, posted on Chance's IG:
CDs
MerchChicago-based artist Brandon Breaux, Chance’s longtime visual collaborator behind the iconic covers for 10 Day, Acid Rap, and Coloring Book, created the album’s artwork. Over more than a decade, Chance and Breaux have developed a distinct visual language—one that resists reductive industry tropes and centers Blackness in vibrant, imaginative fullness. With Star Line, their creative dialogue continues, honoring Chance’s evolution while remaining rooted in authenticity and cultural reverence.
The album’s lead single, “Tree” featuring Lil Wayne and Smino, is out now. Built around a soulful reinterpretation of India.Arie’s “Video,” the track functions as both a personal tribute and a liberation anthem. Lyrically, Chance reflects on the strength of his mother and the inequities in agricultural industries. Blending vulnerability with defiance, he also reclaims cannabis as a symbol of peace, healing, and economic resistance.
The self-directed music video extends this vision. Set in a Black women-owned dispensary that doubles as a growing facility, the visual celebrates ownership, cultivation, and community-building, while challenging long-held stigmas around cannabis and Black entrepreneurship. The dispensary becomes a symbol of sovereignty, drawing a direct line to Marcus Garvey’s original Black Star Line: not just a vessel for liberation, but a platform for sustainable wealth, mobility, and self-determination. Playful, surreal, and rooted in joy, the video rejects tragedy and instead centers resilience, resistance, and Black women’s leadership. Watch the music video HERE.
