The Big Day

Chance the Rapper - The Big Day
Critic Score
Based on 22 reviews
2019 Ratings: #703 / 805
User Score
2019 Rank: #949
Liked by 36 people
Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

100
A.V. Club

By any measure, The Big Day is a watershed moment—not just because Chance has so adeptly turned an industry on its head, but because it’s the zenith of an entire career spent demonstrating that when Chance raps, he raps from the heart.

91
Entertainment Weekly
A master lyricist, a musical omnivore, Chance and his family of producers and instrumentalists channel all the big emotions of the big day in a swirl of bliss, marital and otherwise.
90
Exclaim!

Unlike other lengthy recent rap albums (*cough* Scorpion), The Big Day has enough ideas, sounds and flows to justify its vast breath. What's more: it finally gives us a glimpse at Chance's multitudes, letting us accompany him to the altar and the confessional, instead of restricting him to the pulpit.

85
The Line of Best Fit

It’s an introspective body of work, delivered by an extrospective figure who always has something to say about the state of the world we live in.

80
AllMusic

Occasional nearsighted lyrical perspectives and three or four excellent but inessential tracks keep The Big Day from quite reaching masterpiece status, but it's still the most grown up (and the most polished) rendering of Chance's eternally bright spirit in his catalog.

80
The Guardian

There’ll be some who listen to this debut album (whatever that term means any more) and hope for more invention and variation in his next steps, when the star’s til-death-do-us-part commitment to cheery, church-rap cutesiness begins to tire. For fans though, The Big Day will endure well past any seven-year itches.

75
Spectrum Culture

Not quite a classic, it’s nonetheless a welcome statement from one of the decade’s most important hip-hop artists.

74
GIGsoup

It’s inconsistent and far from the perfection Chance probably has in him, and which the world somewhat unfairly expected from a first album.

70
The Young Folks
At its best, the album perfectly incorporates the plight of the American Dream for an African American. It’s a theme not too often explored in hip hop nowadays. Thankfully, Chance is finally living that dream. And for the most part, it’s a wonderful thing to be a part of.
69
Pitchfork

Chance’s sprawling, 77-minute “debut” is an exuberant and often wonderful celebration of love and family that struggles to bring depth to his newlywed dad-raps.

68
Paste

Even with all its bright spots ... The Big Day still doesn’t do all that much, especially in the shadow of classics like Acid Rap and Coloring Book. The Big Day is one neverending dad joke.

65
Northern Transmissions

While the album definitely has some real high points, the whole endeavour may come off like a mixed bag depending on how much of a Chance fan you are.

60
Rolling Stone

The Big Day contains about as much tonal variation as a leather-bound wedding photo album.

60
Clash
There are strong highlights across the set, despite this, the failure to be concise forms part of the force's biggest downfalls.
60
NOW Magazine
On his first for-sale album, the Chicago rapper presents a bigger and slicker version of his nostalgic gospel-rap sound but buries it in excess
60
The Independent

The Big Day is like a lot of weddings: too long and occasionally a little dull – with one or two unforgettable moments.

60
NME

Stuffed with superfluous features, the Chicago rapper's 22-track debut studio album sags somewhat, but is almost saved by his infectiously optimistic outlook.

50
Consequence of Sound

In addition to the album’s subjects being alienating, it also just ends up feeling resoundingly empty.

50
Highsnobiety

Even with its focus on beautiful life placeholders, musically it misses the mark to a great degree and fails to engage the listener across the whole of its offering.

48
Sputnikmusic

If this is the big day Chance The Rapper has been waiting for, he's been saving up filler for years.

46
HipHopDX

The Big Day will go down as one of the biggest disappointments in rap in recent memory, in no small part because Coloring Book was so great.

_zeltrxn17
11

Some dude said this is the audio equivalent of walking thru a city and getting asked for a cig every 10 steps. That's really all that's needed to say.

UPDATE: Chance's singing and songwriting are actually album-ruining. This is terrible and gets even worse overtime.

The Big Day? More like the πŸ…±οΈig Gay

Dude waited 5 full years since his XXL cover to release such a fucking garbage, uninteresting, boring to tears, patronising, cursed debut owbum.
Forget Baroness, this is THE disturbingly ... read more

barcooper
10

Torture.

This is my introduction to Chance the Rapper. Now look, I will be honest, I was more interested in why this album is so hated rather than listening to his more well received projects. I'm sorry, I just really wanted to see if it's as bad as everyone says. And I will listen to his praised mixtapes as well. And oh, it's definitely as bad as everyone says it is.

This is Chance the Rapper's debut. Chance has released two highly acclaimed mixtapes prior to this debut, Acid Rap and ... read more

Claytastic
14

EDIT 2 (original score 48): Holy fucking shit dude. This gets worse with every listen. Literally the only thing keeping me from deleting the first review and just writing a new one is that it’s my most liked review to date by a baker’s mile. So I guess I’ll just write it here to block it out and give you the revised version.

At first, I thought this album had ups and downs. Then I thought it was flat out boring. Now I think it’s one of the biggest drops in quality from ... read more

LocalJazz
15

+1 point for every song on this thing I liked
-0.5 for the fact that they make up LESS THAN A TENTH OF THE ALBUM
It's unbelieveable how shit this thing is. The lyrics are terrible all the way through, with instrumentals ranging from "actually kinda ok?" to "Hot Shower" (which is one of the worst tracks I've ever heard and makes Hoodrat sound like Mural). Thank god this shit is over. Chance, you have a LOT to prove, and you're basically finished if you can't. Good luck!

Best ... read more

Geckota
20

sure was a big day when he dropped this album!

35

"I met Kanye West, I'm never going to fail"

sure chance... sure...

Purchasing The Big Day from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement

Year End Lists

#34/Thrillist
/Esquire (UK)
Sign in to comment
1w
3w
3w
1mo
1mo


Added on: July 17, 2019