Music

Theaster Gates Digs into Chance the Rapper's Newfound Revolution

Chance the Rapper has had an explosive jump from young Chicago poet to sound artist and cold-blooded MC philanthropist. His latest interdisciplinary endeavors—including “The Highs & The Lows,” a music and visual arts hybrid that he premiered at Art Basel, “Child of God,” an exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Black Star Line Festival in Accra, Ghana in January 2023—cross the definitions and expectations of art and entertainment to connect, represent, and advance Blackness. Here, CULTURED's Winter 2022 coverstar speaks in conversation with artist and professor Theaster Gates, whose two concurrent New York exhibitions at the New Museum and Gagosian 976 Madison Avenue join his long CV of works that try to intellectualize, understand, and, in many ways, salvage the human experience.