Unlike 2013’s Acid Rap, a momentous achievement that demonstrated to the vampiric industry what independent artists are capable of — and encapsulated the youthfulness of the early days of SoundCloud — STAR LINE is not era-defining. Ever since his first official album, 2019’s The Big Day, an opus of marital bliss, Chance has largely been dismissed by gatekeepers of rap. The title of the new album is inspired by the Black Star Line, a shipping and trading liner organized by Marcus Garvey in the 1920s. Chance’s 2022 single “Child of God” features Ghanaian-American Moses Sumney and unofficially launched what fans are calling his “Star Line Gallery era”. STAR LINE is a widely aimed announcement of Chance’s return to the rap game and a signal to his hometown that he never really left.