Chance the Rapper Is Finally Releasing His Debut Album

Chance the Rapper announced the release of his “Owbum” on Twitter on Monday, with his manager, Pat Corcoran, confirming the announcement in a post that read: “Chance Album. July 2019.” In a series of tweets, Chance described what separates his debut album from mixtapes like Acid Rap and Coloring Book.

“This my 1st album so its really good,” he wrote. “I got real famous so I gotta lotta eyes on me that wasn’t fans of me they just fans of whats popular. My first album is for my fans. I’ll always be immensely proud of what I did with Coloring Book. Same Drugs, Summer Friends and Juke Jam are some the realest songs I’ve ever written so u dont have to defend Coloring Book to me. It happened, it made history but I did it already. The album wont be acid rap either.”

Chance’s last project, Coloring Book, was released in 2016. It made history by debuting at Number Eight on the Billboard 200, despite not selling a single copy: It was streamed 57.3 million times on Apple Music after its release. In the past, Chance has eschewed selling his albums, but it’s unclear if that will change now that he’s releasing his debut. In a 2017 interview with Vanity Fair, he explained why he doesn’t sell his music.

“I never wanted to sell my music,” Chance said, “because I thought putting a price on it put a limit on it and inhibited me from making a connection”¦I make money from touring and selling merchandise, and I honestly believe if you put effort into something and you execute properly, you don’t necessarily have to go through the traditional ways.”