© 2024 WBGO
Discover Jazz...Anywhere, Anytime, on Any Device.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Chance The Rapper And Young Thug Dedicate 'Big B's' To SoundCloud

Chance the Rapper released his new song exclusively to SoundCloud, amid the streaming site's less than certain future.
Lorne Thomson
/
Getty Images
Chance the Rapper released his new song exclusively to SoundCloud, amid the streaming site's less than certain future.

"I'm working on the SoundCloud thing," Chance the Rapper tweeted last Thursday, sounding like an angel tasked with yet another miracle after rumors — later denied by the company — that SoundCloud's collapse was imminent. After having what he called "a fruitful call" with SoundCloud cofounder Alex Ljung, Chance tweeted "SoundCloud is here to stay," a day later.

It's hard to translate what Chance's phone call accomplished. The tweet does draw an odd parallel to President Trump, who's also been known to send self-congratulatory tweets, often prematurely, about rescuing jobs from the pits of hell — or worse, permanent relocation — with a simple phone call to company honchos.

But if it results in a new song from Chance — who's remained committed to giving away his music for free despite his Grammy wins and chart-topping success — who's complaining? Certainly not Young Thug, who gets the real spotlight on "Big B's." In the vein of Coloring Book single "Mixtape," which also featured Young Thug alongside Lil Yachty, "Big B's" is a veritable showcase for Thugger, who spazzes through the first and third verses while Chance sandwiches himself in the middle.

"Big B's" is short for big business, as Thug interjects at the beginning of the track, and it's already surpassed 1.3 million plays in two days, which must be worth something in the streaming biz. And the song, available exclusively on SoundCloud, ironically features the two MCs boasting about the fruits of their labor. Whether Chance is "saving [S]oundCloud through a track," as one commenter asked halfway through his verse, or simply finding clever ways to self-promote, it's a jamming proclamation.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Tags
Rodney Carmichael is NPR Music's hip-hop staff writer. An Atlanta-bred cultural critic, he helped document the city's rise as rap's reigning capital for a decade while serving on staff as music editor, culture writer and senior writer for the defunct alt-weekly Creative Loafing.