Since first teaming up to make music in 2012, Chancelor Bennett (a.k.a Chance the Rapper) and Donald Glover (a.k.a. Childish Gambino) have had an undeniable chemistry. While they aren’t on the level of other famous rapper partnerships like Method Man & Redman or EPMD, Chance and Gambino play off each other well and seem to bring out the best in each other. After Chance’s appearance during Gambino’s set during the Governor’s Ball Music Festival in New York last weekend, the latter tweeted the following:
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With that semi-announcement about an upcoming EP collaboration (we’ll get to that “finally released his verse on ‘worst guys'” thing in a second), now’s a good time to look at their collaborations over the years, starting from the beginning.
In an XXL Magazine interview from 2012, Chance revealed that the two connected through a publicist after Gambino saw Chance perform with now-defunct group Kids These Days at SXSW. He then reached out to Chance to record a song for his “Royalty” mixtape, and they hit it off almost immediately.
“We connected really well after doing the song. He’s definitely like a big brother. I [bleep] with him tough. He showed me a lot. We’ve been working together since we did the tour.”
That song turned into “They Don’t Like Me.”
The Skywlkr-produced tune finds Gambino falling back on the song so the lesser known Chance can spit witty punchlines like “Wanna chick that speak Chicano/don’t speak a lick of English, pronounce my name like Channo, She say “something-something Spanish,” I look back like, “Yeah bitch, I know.” It basically ends up being a Chance the Rapper song on a Childish Gambino album.
What could easily be their best work to date, the two spit Gatling gun-fast rhymes over a juke-influenced Nate Fox track. Fox does a great job here, flipping a sample of Betty Wright’s soul classic “Clean Up Woman” into a feverish tempo.
“I. The Worst Guys” from “Because The Internet” (2013)
In the original version of this dreamy album standout, we only hear Chance on the hook. Gambino poked fun at Chance on Twitter for not finishing his verse for the record and jumping on Justin Bieber’s “Confident” instead. Now, remember that “verse” Glover tweeted about? It was the long-lost verse from this song that Chance finally revealed during last weekend’s appearance at Governor’s Ball.
A date for the EP hasn’t been revealed yet, but whenever it drops, expect to hear future-thinking and something awesome from this duo.
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