The Big Day by Chance the Rapper: 2019 Album Review

The Big Day is American rapper Chance the Rapper’s debut studio album. It was released on 26th July, 2019. Just like all his previous projects and mixtapes, this album is also self released without a label and features a wide array of uncredited bit guest names such as Nicki Minaj, John Legend, DaBaby and many more. Check out the review by Review Monkey below.

To review The Big Day, we are first going to talk about it generally and then also do a track by track mini-analysis of the whole thing. So let’s get to it! Chance the Rapper is an inspiration, at least for me personally. He defied and continues to defy all odds when he rejected all big labels and started to release his projects through his own means.

The Big Day, just like his previous efforts and mixtapes, is also self-released. He has time and time again proven the fact that if you are really into something and you actually work for it, then you don’t need any cosigns or any major labels backing you up for you to be relevant.

I also think that Chance is very talented, not just lyrically but musically as well. His lyrics throughout his career have been something that the Hip Hop game has been missing for a while these days. Most people either make tracks that are too lyrical but boring or they make tracks that are extreme jams but with very weak lyrical content.

Chance the Rapper is somewhere in between there with a perfect blend of catchy music and great lyrics. Those are exactly the things that made his Acid Rap and even his Coloring Book project very nice to listen to all the way through. But does his debut The Big Day follow the same steps and deliver all over again?

The Big Day had a release issue when it was supposed to come out at midnight on the 26th of July but instead, was pushed back a couple of hours, causing fans including me to speculate if we were going to get it or not. Then it came out and it had huge shoes to fill. And I think that’s, to some extent, maybe not fair, to us or the artist.

When an artist sets the bar so damn high for his own self, it becomes nearly impossible to meet the standard all over again. And that is where The Big Day suffers the most. At this point, we expect a certain kind of quality from someone like Chance the Rapper. And it saddens me to say that this album didn’t live up to the expectations at all.

No singles were released prior to The Big Day’s release so fans had no idea what was coming but when the album dropped after so much hype and anticipation, it left me very underwhelmed and I felt like there was something missing in it.

I will say this, The Big Day is definitely a very personal project. Throughout The Big Day, Chance the Rapper raps and occasionally sings about his personal life, his marriage and his child and I respect that but it doesn’t do the listener any good if it doesn’t sound good musically. We are here for the journey but we also crave songs that we can listen to on repeat. And that is why I said such high expectations are unfair to both the artist and the listener.

This is my personal opinion about this project so now, let’s get to the individual tracks!

Track 1: All Day Long

Featuring uncredited vocals from one of the best voices in the industry, John Legend, The Big Day starts off with a track that is honestly a very perfect opening song for an album and Chance really sets the tone for the rest of the album, telling everyone that he’s back. However, musically, to my ears, it just felt like noise and even Legend on the hook couldn’t make this listenable for me.

Track 2: Do You Remember

The second track on The Big Day features Benjamin Gibbard on a hook that is honestly very beautiful. The song is also very reminiscent and gives very mellow summer vibes. But Chance the Rapper’s verses sound very repetitive and not cohesive enough for me to put it in my phone.

Track 3: Eternal

Smino is featured on the third track of The Big Day and has Chance the Rapper talking about how “side relationships” aren’t worth it. But again, all of it sounds so repetitive and not nice that I just couldn’t get into it.

Track 4: Hot Shower

DaBaby and MadeinTYO come in with the assist on the first absolute banger on The Big Day. What a track! This is something that can be played in the car, in the club, in movie soundtracks, this is “lit” in every sense of the word. The hook is simple enough for me to bop my head to it and the verses are on point!

Track 5: We Go High

The first track on The Big Day that doesn’t take help from any other artist, this is a very personal song and you figure it out from the very beginning. Chance raps about his marriage and his wife and how they have had problems in the past but now, it’s all good again. It’s good for what it is but it’s still not anything that stands out.

Track 6: I Got You (Always and Forever)

Featuring vocals by Ari Lennox, the sixth track on The Big Day takes it back to the 90’s sound but it doesn’t sound like anything that belongs here in 2019 and sounds very outdated. I get it, that’s intentional but if it doesn’t sound good, what’s the point?

Track 7: Photo Ops (Skit)

The seventh track on The Big Day is something that a Hip Hop album is incomplete without, a skit. It’s about two brothers having a good time but then getting into an argument and someone coming in and setting them straight and stopping them. Basically gives the listener some time to breathe a little until the next track.

Track 8: Roo

Followed directly from and by the previous skit, this track on The Big Day features CocoRosie and Chance’s actual brother Taylor Bennett. The song stars off with amazing vocals by the duo CocoRosie but then loses its charm when Chance starts his verse, talking about his childhood spent with his brother in his childhood home.

Track 9: The Big Day

Finally, The Big Day’s titular track comes in hot at number 9 with mesmerizing vocals from Francis and the Lights. The Big Day basically tells the story of his wedding day and is mostly a very mellow acoustic track but halfway in, as Chance says in the song, he goes “crazy” and the song gets another life! An amazing track!

Track 10: Let’s Go on the Run

The tenth track on The Big Day features Knox Fortune and is an upbeat number that just sounds basic and doesn’t land right at all.

Track 11: Handsome

With a verse from the freshwoman Megan Thee Stallion, the eleventh track on The Big Day doesn’t sound as good as it is supposed to and sounds, just like my analysis, very repetitive. You have heard something like this before a million times.

Track 12: Big Fish

The title of this track is very fitting as Chance brings in the “Big Fish” Gucci Mane to support him for the twelfth song on The Big Day. Marking the two artists’ first collaboration, this is a very low key banger in which the two artists talk about their success and how Chance now has a proper name for himself. This collaboration definitely stands out!

Track 13: Ballin Flossin’

Shawn Mendes comes in for this The Big Day cut and I never thought this collaboration would work. And it honestly doesn’t. I am sure this would be overplayed on the radio because it sounds very pop-ish and mainstream but for me, personally, this ain’t it.

Track 14: 4 Quarters in the Black (Skit)

The second The Big Day skit comes in at number 14 and has someone telling Chance about how now that he’s successful, he shouldn’t take it for granted and how now is the time to be even more careful with life because you could lose it even faster than you earned it.

Track 15: 5 Year Plan

As the title suggests, this track is an introspective cut where Chance talks about what he has in mind for the future and how he’s going to prosper even more. Assisted by Randy Newman, this is where The Big Day is very personal but not the best musically.

Track 16: Get a Bag

The sixteenth track on The Big Day features CalBoy is supposed to be an easy jam but it gets annoyingly repetitive.

Track 17: Slide Around

Okay, this is one of my favorites from The Big Day. Nicki Minaj and Lil Durk both come through for this absolute banger of a track with production from Pi’erre Bourne and sounds like something Playboi Carti would be hopping on in the near future. Certified jam!

Track 18: Sun Come Down

One of the few songs on The Big Day that doesn’t feature anyone, this is a very deep track where Chance says that when the sun sets on him and his life, just let it be. Don’t make any movies or holograms about him, especially without his wife’s permission. It’s where Chance is at his most vulnerable.

Track 19: Found a Good One (Single No More)

The nineteenth track on The Big Day features production from Murda Beatz and is an upbeat track about, as the title suggests, how Chance is no longer single as he has found his life partner but oh my God, it is just a very annoying song overall.

Track 20: Town on the Hill

As The Big Day approaches its end, Chance gets even more personal and goes into how he is extremely grateful for his wife and his daughter and his life in general. You can’t really listen to it on replay but it’s alright as it puts things in perspective.

Track 21: Our House (Skit)

The final skit on The Big Day and the second last track on the album, this skit features a little girl talking about her toys and life in general. This honestly feels like a proper “day” after the “big day” and it was very heartwarming to listen to.

Track 22: Zanies and Fools

This marks the second feature from Nicki Minaj on The Big Day and talks about the past and how reckless and naive the younger years of someone’s life are. You don’t really care about anything other than having fun and going out and you don’t really think about life. Starts off very slow and then turns up and it’s an okay Outro to the album but doesn’t feel like a fitting one.

So, yeah, that’s a wrap. Overall, as I said before, I had bigger and greater expectations from an artist as great as Chance the Rapper. The last thing I wanted was an underwhelming project from and considering that this is what we got after so much anticipation, I must say that I am sad and disappointed.

Review Monkey Doesn’t Approve.

The Big Day by Chance the Rapper Cover and Images

Listen to the album here.