Chance The Rapper Explained How He Regained His Confidence After ‘The Big Day’ Backlash

Chance The Rapper has addressed the fan backlash against his debut album The Big Day before, but now that he’s back in their good graces following the release of Star Line, he’s back to talking about what went wrong with his first album — and how he regained the confidence to release its well-received follow-up.

Appearing on Cam Newton’s Funky Friday, Chance told the NFL star that his “pivot to video” helped him recenter himself and was the catalyst for his comeback to rap. He explained, “You want people to love your music. A little while after I dropped, I started to feel this intense criticism, really only on the internet. And it took me a long time to recognize that part, but I felt it so intently that — and it was such a first-time feeling — that I… second-guessed myself for a second.”

However, making videos for himself through the 2020 pandemic helped him shake off that self-consciousness in a relatively safer space. “I think what really helped me get out of that was becoming creative again, but in a different lane,” he said. “I started working with cameras, I started learning film and learning cinematography…basically putting myself through a fake film school.” This led to the video for his song “The Heart And The Tongue,” which not only allowed him to scratch his itch to create, but also reminded fans that his stage name is well-earned and much deserved.

“Once I made that song and that video and put it out to be like, ‘Look at how good this video was,’ everybody was like, ‘No, look at how good them raps is’,” Chance recalled. “‘Keep rapping.’ And I had to keep rapping and keep making videos.”

You can watch the clip in which Chance talks about regaining his confidence up top and the full episode below.