Chance the Rapper Debuts His Fourth Interdisciplinary Art Piece “YAH Know” In Collaboration With Mía Lee Featuring King Promise

Work Premiered at Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)

Watch the music video HERE

Stream “YAH Know” HERE

View photos from the MOCA opening night reception HERE

LOS ANGELES – Today, Chance the Rapper releases his fourth interdisciplinary work, “YAH Know (Feat. King Promise)” in collaboration with Chicago-based visual artist Mía Lee. Chance and Mía recently unveiled the work at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, where guests were treated to an intimate concert and a special screening of the music video. “YAH Know” demonstrates an exciting new movement of Black creative heavy-hitters using their platform to explore the oft-forgotten cultural nexus of 80s house music (aka the golden age of house music) in the mainstream of 2022. By sampling a track and voice as immediately recognizable as Whitney Houston’s, then reframing it with house-inspired production and arrangement choices, Chance is making a bold statement about the current and future state of hip-hop and popular music. 

Conceptually, “YAH Know” is a representation of generations of storytelling, particularly within Black families. It’s the recalling of personal stories about the journey one had to take told by a grandparent or parent in a first or third-person perspective. Mía’s painting shows the characters named “the lady” and “the gentleman” in movement. The explosion in the background represents having to adapt and move forward because of the circumstances that tend to throw one off course. The desolate landscape is for the viewer to fill with their own scene of relatable experiences or the ones they were told in their family. These are the details of the narratives that show vulnerability and honesty while connecting experiences from one generation to another.

“This is definitely without a doubt my favorite project,” states Mía Lee. “Chance really immersed me into the project from the very beginning. Felt very much like a real collaboration because we were pretty much making the pieces of the project at the same time. Like while he’d be in his studio finishing verses I was in my studio painting. But we got to really talk consistently and just have these really open conversations which led to us telling stories about our family which inspired the piece that I made - aside from the song just being very very fire on its own.”

Chance the Rapper and Mía Lee posing with “YAH Know” at the MOCA opening night reception (October 19, 2022)

Once again, Chance proves that rap is simply the framework for the kind of artistic expression he is capable of as a songwriter, producer, curator and director. The Chance-directed video prominently features Accra's Black Star Square, also known as Independence Square, where Chance is set to host his inaugural Black Star Line Festival on January 6, 2023. The video is cut up with scenes of Chicago footwork dancers, bridging the gap between his birthland USA and his motherland Africa. “YAH Know” begs the viewers and listeners to reflect on their own stories, lineage and ideas of home. Where is home? You’ll know when you get there…  

Chance has spent 2022 intertwining the worlds of art, music and cinematography through groundbreaking work and installations, collaborating with artists from The Continent and The Diaspora. His new works include “Child of God” (collab with Gabonese artist and painter Naïla Opiangah), “A Bar About A Bar” (collab with Chicago-based painter Nikko Washington and filmmaker Troy Gueno), “The Highs & The Lows” feat. Joey Bada$$ (collab with Gabonese photographer Yannis Davy Guibingua) –– all of which celebrate Black artists.

Chance The Rapper’s highly anticipated new project, Star Line Gallery is due out soon.