Chicago Legend of the Mixtape Era Chancelor Bennet returns after six years with his second studio album – and a chance at redemption.

You could probably name the number of rappers on one hand that had a more meteoric rise than Chance the Rapper did from 2012 – 2017. If you were in that space at that time, he was everywhere. He released three mixtapes that took the internet by storm; from his promising debut 10 Day, to the instant classic Acid Rap, to the Grammy winning Coloring Book – Chance was on top of the world. As a result, all eyes were on Chance as he began to roll out his debut studio album, The Big Day in 2019.

But, you know what they say about expectations, and the weight of the pressure seemed to crush him. The Big Day was critically panned, hated by the general public and longtime fans alike, and memed to oblivion for it’s subject matter, wonky beats, and at times head scratching lyrics. In the six years since, Chance sort of disappeared from the larger public eye. He would still go on to release a handful of loose singles here and there, but no full projects as a follow up. That is, until this month.

Its obvious the reception to the Big Day really affected Chance negatively. But it wasn’t just that, personal turmoil also plagued him. He and his wife, the main subject matter of the album, divorced in early 2025, after just five years of marriage. On top of that, many of the criticisms of The Big Day boiled down to the fact that it wasn’t Acid Rap and that it deviated too much on what fans loved about Chance’s earlier work. On an episode of the Grits and Eggs Podcast, Chance spoke about his mental state over the last few years,

“When I did The Big Day and I got, like, all of this weird internet reaction from it, I spent a lot of time away, away from wanting to be around people, away from wanting to have to deal with what I thought was out there in the world. And it wasn’t until I started going back outside that I realized – no, there’s people that really, really love this album. There’s people that’s getting married to this album. There’s people that have tattoos of lyrics from this album. And this is something that came from my pen straight to paper. So, my purpose is already defined and validated.”

It appears that Chance is now in healthy place after taking the time to process everything that’s transpired since his debut LP. It appears that he remembered who he was, and what his true purpose is. With all that said and the necessary exposition out of the way, let’s talk about whether or not Star Line is a return to form for the Chicago rapper, or a continuation of a downward trend.

Star Line opens on high note. “Star Side Intro” is such a tour de force. It’s some of the best pure rapping of the year. From the flow, to the bars, to the punchlines. It’s Chance at his best. Even in all the negativity surrounding the previous record, few ever questioned Chance’s pen, and it’s on full display here. The next track, “Ride” is a fun and vibrant ode to more classic hip hop tracks from the 90s. The next two tracks, “No More Old Men” & “The Negro Problem” are brilliant. They tackle social issues that hit close to home, particularly in the black community. It’s some of Chance’s best song writing of his career. However, where the album really shines is on tracks like “Back To The Go”, “The Highs and Lows”, “Space and Time”, and “Letters”. Chance completely bares his soul on these tracks. It’s him at his most raw, his most vulnerable, his most real. It’s some of the best music of Chance’s career, up there with many of the tracks on his first three projects.

However, my issues with the album show up mostly around the middle. Even though songs like “Drapetomania”, “Gun In Yo Purse”, and “Tree” are fun songs that have their place on playlists, they don’t really fit among the others on the album. They feel like they belong on a completely different record. They completely ruin the flow of the album, and are jarring mood switches. They feel shallow especially among some of the deeper tracks listed earlier and in an album that is 17 tracks and an hour and seven minutes long, there could and should have been some cuts. Even a song that I mentioned earlier, “The Highs and Lows”, while stellar, is a weird addition considering it’s a three year old track. It came out for the first time in 2022, and wit’s addition feels a bit strange.

When the album is good, it’s really good. At times it feels like there are very few rappers in the world better than Chance. Other times though, it’s perplexing. Because while none of the songs are straight up bad, it makes you wonder why they were included – especially when you consider this may have been his last shot at any sort of relevancy in the grander rap landscape. Overall, though, those moments are fewer and farther between than they aren’t. Star Line may not be the classic that Acid Rap is, nor will it likely win any Grammys like The Coloring Book, but it puts Chance back on a track many thought there was no coming back to. If nothing else, Star Line is a lesson in perseverance. In the merits of failing but learning from it and not giving up on yourself. It’s a lesson on taking the highs with the lows.

Rating: 6.8/10

Written by Devyn Tammons