Chase Shakur’s rise to fame came through his take on nostalgic R&B built from the sounds of the ’90s. Both serve as the foundation for the sonics of his first two EPs, It’ll Be Fine and It’s Not You, It’s Me released in 2022 and 2023, respectively. After a full year without a project, the Atlanta singer is back, but things are a bit different this time around. Today, Shakur released his debut album Wonderlove where — for the most part — he abandons the nostalgic R&B that fans came to know him for and swaps it with a futuristic sound that appropriately adds a new layer to his promising future.
Wonderlove is sleek and shiny as a new debut album should be. Through its sixteen songs which feature Smino, Rimon, and TyFontaine, Shakur imagines a love that soars through its highs and works through its lows to return to previous heights. In an interview with Uproxx, the Atlanta singer says the album is filled with songs that capture the “different things that you live through with a person that really shape your art [and] you as a person.” The love story on Wonderlove is so moving that it even helped Shakur realize the qualities he desires in a partner, hoping to one day be in a situation like the one he sings of on his debut.
In conversation with Shakur, we dove into the true meaning of Wonderlove, his goals for his growing R&B sound, his impenetrable optimism, and a spiritual journey that just got underway.
What does the word Wonderlove mean to you?
So I came up with the title because I was listening to a lot of older music and sh*t. We got that one family picture, like in black households, there’s this picture of my grandma and my grandpa and I was damn, I want to make an album about a love inspired by that. I wanted to make something that really wasn’t real, so I tied in the whole wonder and love thing. I wanted to represent love in its most pure form — sonically, lyrically, vocally, everything.
This album is filled with love songs like “Limerence,” “Focus On Me,” “Want U,” and “Luv Language.” How does the man who once said relationships weren’t his priority during the ‘It’s Not You, It’s Me’ era get here to create these songs for Wonderlove?
I think it’s more so the idea of it. The idea of me trusting myself to give myself to somebody 100%. Kind of how you see in today’s society, but I think dating for artists is a little different, since we have a lot of different factors against the relationship sh*t to make the sh*t hella complicated. I always wanted to toy with the idea of being obsessed with somebody. It was weird because I was learning as I was making the album, so at the end as I’m finishing up, I’m learning like maybe this is what matters, this is what doesn’t matter, [and] this is where my values should lie when it comes to love. It was kind of like the album’s teaching me how to maneuver through those emotions.
On this album, who are you singing to or what woman are you singing about? Doesn’t have to be someone specific, but what qualities does she have that have you so enamored?
She’s a polar opposite of me. The person that I was talking about, she’s real bubbly like sunshine, [an] extroverted type of person. It’s like [that] saying that girls would say, “Yeah, you low-key, but I’m crazy, so we work.” So it’s like that.
What would you say drew you into the dance, uptempo, and groovy sound that you have on several songs on the album?
With this project, I wanted to showcase what I could do, like everything. I didn’t want to just stay boxed into 90s or nostalgic sound. I think what I’m trying to do is a little bit deeper than that. Making this sh*t, I was just testing sh*t out in LA. We were living in LA for like two months and, yeah, just real trial and error and real studying. I was studying a lot of Stevie [Wonder], a lot of different genres, [and] just trying to make it like a cohesive, fun experience. I didn’t want it to be a slow drag.
What boundaries did you hope to push, both for yourself and R&B as a whole, through creating Wonderlove?
I wanted to make something that didn’t have to be real. [Its] world doesn’t have to be real, it can be like whatever you want it to be. I think what I wanted to show is that I can build a world, you can feel the world, you can connect to it, and it can feel like your world too. I just wanted it to feel like it’s ours. I think I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do that.
Talk to me about the ending of this album and the hidden track at the end of “A Song For Her.” I thought we were about to get a full album of pure love songs and it seems like things take a turn for the worse. What does that piece mean for the full message of the album?
I wouldn’t say it takes a turn, but it’s kind of like a loop, almost. In relationships, you go through it right, and at the end, you’re always left with the question, “Do I leave or do we start over?” In this story, we decided to start over at the end. This time, it’s without all the extraness. I did it like a loop because it loops you back into the feeling of “Limerence.”
I’ve found you to be an extremely optimistic person. Why do you think that is, and how are you able to maintain that optimism?
I just don’t see myself doing anything else. I don’t believe I got all the way here for no reason. I’m a firm believer in God. Bro, it was like 2019/2020, I was walking around like I was already here. I’m big on manifestation and [the] Law Of Attraction, too. I just move around like there’s no plan b’s at all. I can’t see myself being anything other than a Black artist.
How did pre-success moments like hustling and working at UPS help and push you to make it? Now that you’re long removed from those moments, how do you view that era?
I was in a space where I was really trying to figure it out. Before It’ll Be Fine, I was working three jobs, and I was going to school at the same time and, yeah bro, I hated that sh*t, bro. I was in a car accident a month before the first song kind of blew up, and I was crawling out the passenger seat of my sh*t — it was wild times. N****s could write a biopic about the sh*t but yeah, just being 16 and going through my teenage years [and] working all these damn jobs, I was like, “Yo, I really need to change my life.” I didn’t want to be 25 and still be working a job and all this other sh*t. I was just not taking “no” for an answer, honestly. I had to do whatever I had to do to get photoshoots, if that meant I had to sign to some modeling agency, I would do that — anything to make my ends meet for my art is what I was going to do. I wasn’t gonna let nothing stop me, and I’m still like that.
This year marks 10 years of you pursuing music. How does it feel or how special is it that you can celebrate this anniversary with an album like Wonderlove?
That sh*t’s kind of crazy, now that you say that sh*t out loud. You know when you say some sh*t out loud, and it sounds crazy? But I was telling somebody, “Yo, I’m about to be like 10 years doing this sh*t,” and it doesn’t feel like I’ve been doing it that long because it really feels like three almost just because [of] what has transpired? I do music like I breathe, I don’t really think to be like, “Okay, I started here, let me go here,” but, yeah, man, everything’s just been a blessing and a lesson. It’s actually kind of wild bro thinking about all this sh*t. I was talking to my producer, they were like, “Bro, you’ve done great projects back to back, and you ain’t been on vacation, nothing?” Like nah man, I’m gonna do it after this one! It’s really just a blessing, to go from when I was 16? I didn’t see any of this happening, I was selling mixtapes at gas stations, but yeah, I’m excited about everything.
We’re some weeks removed from the start of the new year, so what’s something you’d love to accomplish this year?
I started a spiritual journey, so I’m on my journey to be a better artist all around. So, just creating more and living in that. That’s my resolution.
Wonderlove is out now via Def Jam. Find out more information here.