Photo Credit: Colin Hancock

Grammy-winning rap artist Chance the Rapper released Star Line today, his first album in six years. With the release of the album comes a new single, “Just a Drop,” one of the final tracks off the album and one featuring fellow rapper and producer Jay Electronica. A lyric video can be found on Chance’s YouTube channel.

The soulful and emotional track starts with a verse all about water and the need for it. Chance speaks about water (and later land) as a framing for how essential needs that exist in excess are possessed by some, yet withheld from others who need it for the most basic essentials. While some need water just to cook or to bathe, others have enough for anything they reasonably could want or need. The song has a gospel-like tone, especially in the chorus and Jay Electronica’s verse, with the theme of water being used there in reference to biblical narratives such as the great flood from the Book of Genesis.  Chance sings about seeing warnings and “storms,” signs of the end times and specifically of the belief in the second coming of Jesus Christ. The verses both he and Jay Electronica provide are dense with meaning of both social commentary and religious allusions speaking on the state of the world in a way that is critical, yet doesn’t feel completely pessimistic. The beat and the chorus both provide a hopeful feeling – be it from the expectation of a biblical end times bringing a fresh slate, or simply people coming together in a more loving way, it has an uplifting feel.

Star Line was released today, featuring 17 tracks in total, including “Just a Drop.” Chance the Rapper is also set to begin his And We Back tour next month.