Consumer Guide Album

Chance the Rapper: Starline [self-released, 2025]
With five mixtapes and three albums proper including this one behind him, 32-year-old Chancellor Johnathan Bennett is the son of a Chicago pol who's not at all shy about claiming woke. Michelle Obama has signed on among his many advocates, especially after he oversaw a million-dollar donation to the Chicago public school system. Among the lyrical themes here are barbershops, vegetables, Floyd Patterson, Luther Vandross, and fetching females feeling him up. Never stupid and seldom boring, neither of which adds up to irresistibly compelling, he remains a rapper to root for as the fascists threaten to occupy his city's streets. B+