The Breakfast Club Puts Chance the Rapper to the Test. He Passes with Flying Colors (Video)

Chance The Rapper and his bandmate Donnie Trumpet recently stopped by The Breakfast Club to chop it up with DJ Envy, Charlamagne Tha God and Angela Yee. While he does give some more detail about his upcoming album (which is revealed to not exactly be his—as first thought), the interview touches on many other topics. The conversation starts out with a bit of an introduction for those who don’t know Chance, as they talk about his 10 Day mixtape and how it was made during a 10-day suspension from high school (also explaining why he was suspended). They then jump ahead to 2014, when Chance was performing at many different festivals including Lollapalooza and Coachella, and talk about Troy Ave calling him a “weirdo rapper” (5:00).

Around 8:45, Chance and Donnie explain (to the more casual Heads) that they’re a band together called The Social Experiment, and their upcoming album is going to be a free release. After 2013’s Acid Rap, Chance started working on music with a variety of different artists, and The Social Experiment is a combination of those collaborations and songs they felt would be a better fit if performed by themselves. Speaking of collaborations, Chance explains how he was able to meet and work with Madonna through connections with Frank Ocean and Jay-Z (15:00), as well as Andre 3000 (20:50).

Before getting back into the upcoming album, they go back and talk about the obvious influence on Acid Rap, as Chance gets into trying acid in high school (22:15). Charlamagne expresses the surprise a lot of people may feel from this interview, as Chance shows that he has a strong business mind and a connection to politics despite the “drug user” image he had after the Acid Rap mixtape.

Around 28:00 they get back into the upcoming Social Experiment album, Surf. They talk about the meaning of the title, the approach to the music, and the experimental approach in terms of keeping the collaborations on the album unlisted. Not wanting to reveal too much, they move on to growing up in Chicago, avoiding the prominent gang activity, and the “small town in a big city” feel that enabled Chance to connect with Common, Lupe Fiasco and Twista (31:30).

The interview closes with Chance discussing his relationship with Drake, and how we may hear a collaboration in the future (35:00). Chance was given the chance to spit some bars, but he notably declined this time. Check out the whole interview below:

Related: Chance The Rapper Surfs In With His First Album Single (Album)