Back in 2017, Chance The Rapper debuted his song “First World Problems” on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, marking one of the Chicago MC’s most renowned live performances. To this day, he still hasn’t given the song an official release, but that hasn’t stopped fans from ripping and reuploading it due to its popularity in his catalog. Fortunately, they won’t have to do as much work now that he’s returned to Colbert, which he did last night with an artful rendition of his newly released single “Child Of God.”
Chance performs the song with an orchestra, blowing out the stripped-down, mellow production to include a passionate crescendo as he delivers the uplifting lyrics. Speaking of those lyrics, in true Chance The Rapper fashion, the song’s heartfelt text appears on the screen as it has in many of his recent music videos such as “The Heart And The Tongue.” It’s actually been a pretty flourishing trend among other independent rappers like Kota The Friend and Tobe Nwigwe, and it’s pretty cool that they’ve found a way to combine the best of both worlds, mashing up the lyrics videos that often accompany new single releases with their creative visuals. In addition, he highlighted Naila Opiangah, the emerging artist who created the painting in the background of the performance, by bringing her onstage with him at the end.
The Rapper has yet to announce a new album but it has been nearly three years since his last one, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he did sometime this year. In the meantime, watch his performance on The Late Show above.