Chance the Rapper has returned with a short, sweet, studious meditation on the dichotomy between what we believe and what we do called “The Heart and the Tongue.” It’s his first real release since 2019’s The Big Day but this song feels a little more like something you’d hear on earlier work like Coloring Book or even Acid Rap. Chance uses a minimalistic beat and sparse samples, and lets his own scratchy flow do all the heavy lifting, parsing the tension between human impulses and God’s redeeming work. It’s a great song with some exceedingly clever wordplay (sounds like Chance has been reading a lot of Classic lit in lockdown). “I’m tired of politicians tryna sell us Diet Jesus / That’s like dialysis was tryna sell us diabetes.” he says.
And then get a load of this one: “My ‘Father’ got a special set of skills like Liam Neeson / He told me faith and squinted eyes can turns blind Venetian.” 10/10.
It’s not clear if this is just a fun one-off or the first volley of an impending album announcement, but we’re grateful for any Chance we get right now.
