For the latest entry in his multi-medium approach to releasing new music, Chance the Rapper is giving fans the chance to watch Chicago-based painter Nikko Washington bring to life a new art piece.
The video for “A Bar About a Bar”—directed by Chance and boasting cinematography from Troy Gueno—features an appearance from Vic Mensa, who last linked up with Chance for this month’s “Wraith (Writing Exercise #3).”
Washington’s oil and acrylic on canvas piece, also titled “A Bar About a Bar,” will be on display through this weekend at the Art Institute of Chicago. “Full circle moment for me,” Washington said when sharing the piece to Instagram this week.
See the full “A Bar About a Bar” experience up top. Chance took a similarly multifaceted approach with the rollout behind “Child of God” in March. The song and video’s release was complemented by artwork from painter Naïla Opiangah, with their collaboration intended to serve as a “visualization of our mirrored experience.”
Also in March, Chance and Naïla spoke with Jordan Rose about the project for Complex. Speaking on the larger ambition behind this current chapter of his career, Chance pointed to the power of collaboration.
“That’s the goal of this whole next project: to be in collaboration with artists and creatives and have these conversations from top to bottom,” he said at the time. “On ‘Child of God,’ I had written the verses and the hook before I actually got to Naïla. I even recorded those before I got to her, but I was still able to be in the creative process with her, because I was shooting a whole video with her while she was painting.”
Read more here.
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