Coloring Book is released

Why it matters

Coloring Book came out May 13, 2016, on Chance the Rapper's own self-released arrangement. It is one of the very first mixtapes ever to win a Grammy: it took Best Rap Album at the 2017 ceremony, after the Recording Academy changed eligibility rules to allow streaming-only mixtapes to qualify. The project is, structurally, a gospel-rap concept album with Chance's verses threaded through choirs, Donnie Trumpet's horn arrangements, gospel singers, and a roster of features that runs from Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz to Jay Electronica to Kanye West to Chicago R&B vocalists Saba and Noname. "All We Got" with Kanye. "No Problem" with Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz. "Same Drugs." "Blessings." "Finish Line / Drown." Coloring Book is Chance's most ambitious and most-loved project; the catalog he has released since has not equaled it. The 2017 Grammy win was the first Best Rap Album to go to a free-distribution mixtape and confirmed the streaming era's restructuring of what counts as a commercial release. You should hear it. The gospel-rap conceit is the part that takes it past the standard 2016 commercial-rap register.