Watch Chance The Rapper Do Carpool Karaoke With James Corden
Chance The Rapper remains in neverending promo mode. Back in July, Chance released his so-called “debut album” The Big Day, and he was all over the place pushing that thing. This week, Netflix is releasing the first season of Rhythm + Flow, a new rap-competition show where Chance is a judge. (The other judges are Cardi B and T.I.) Those two promo tours are blurring together, so when Chance did Carpool Karaoke with on last night’s episode of James Corden’s Late Late Show, maybe he was just promoting his general all-around genial Chanceness.
Chance is, of course, an affable human being. It’s one of his chief selling points. So this particular Carpool Karaoke edition thankfully gave Corden a bit of a chance to relax on his usual barrage of corny comedy bits, though there were still some of those. Chance, for instance, hates vegetables, so Corden got Chance to do a blindfold vegetable taste test. But when it’s just the two of them talking to each other in almost-human ways, discussing the ways in which Obama is similar to Jay-Z, or about what happens when you don’t like a guest verse, it’s pretty watchable.
Also of note: Corden was very eager to show off his fast-rap abilities. That shit happens right away. Be prepared. And the karaoke thing is slightly complicated by the fact that Chance doesn’t exactly have hits, per se. When it’s the two of them rapping “Hot Shower,” a song that completely disappeared from my brain the instant I got done with my Big Day review, it’s like: What are we doing here? Watch it below.
You know who I kept thinking about when watching this? NF. NF, the Christian-rap Eminem-clone guy, released his album The Search the same day that Chance released The Big Day. The Search debuted at #1, and The Big Day debuted at #2. Is NF funny or charming? I have no idea. But NF is demonstrably more popular than Chance. Where’s NF’s Carpool Karaoke?