【搬运】【译】Rolling Stone评Chance The Rapper 2019年专辑《The Big Day》
搬运自：微信公众号【评论搬一堆】（在原文基础上添加了英语原文与排版调整）
翻译：Peter D
审译：Ryan-Chopin
推送：Lynn Liu
让人们期待许久的这位芝加哥说唱艺人在里程碑式的混音作品《Coloring Book（涂画书）》之后的续作简直给人感觉像是在翻一本婚礼相册。
There’s a memorable scene in the movie Elf in which Will Ferrell bursts into his dad’s office during a business meeting, twirls with glee, and proclaims, “I’m in love, I’m in love, and I don’t care who knows it!” If you took this four-second clip and played it 1,160 consecutive times, you’d get the equivalent of Chance the Rapper’s 77-minute debut album The Big Day—a tribute to Chance’s wife, Kirsten Corley, and a companion album to their wedding, which took place earlier this year in March. It’s exultant, like his 2016 gospel-rap opus Coloring Book, but narrower in emotional scope.
电影《Elf（圣诞精灵）》中有这样难忘的一幕：Will Ferrell在他爸爸开会时冲进办公室，高兴地转着圈并大声宣布：“我恋爱啦，我恋爱啦，而且我一点也不关心别人知不知道！”如果你把这个4秒长的片段连续放上1160遍，就相当于Chance the Rapper这77分钟长的首张录音室专辑《The Big Day》了。整张专辑就是Chance对爱妻Kirsten Corley的颂歌，也是今年3月份他们的婚礼的副产物。专辑洋溢着喜悦之情，这一点与2016年的福音说唱混音专辑《Coloring Book》如出一辙，但却在情感范围上变得更精确了。
Coloring Book was a unicorn rap record that imbued Chance’s entire narrative with a sense of resolution, even though he was only 23 at the time, as he championed his renewed faith as the beacon that would shepherd him through adulthood, fatherhood, marriage, and beyond. The project coincided with a stratospheric spike in Chance’s Q score; he won a Grammy for Best Rap Album, hosted SNL, and assumed his place as planet Earth’s preeminent indie rap darling. The End!
《Coloring Book》是一张把雄雄的决心灌注于整体叙事中的如独角兽般珍稀的说唱唱片，即使他当时还只有23岁，且正拼命捍卫着他那新生的信仰，这份信仰对于他而言就如同灯塔，指引着他度过成年时代、做好一个父亲、维系婚姻……这个项目的成功也伴随着Chance的Q评分（译者注：美国用于评判品牌或名人的知名度与号召力的指标）的急速猛涨；他赢得了格莱美的最佳说唱专辑，主持了周六夜现场，并成为了杰出的独立说唱宠儿。圆满结局！
As Chance will tell you on The Big Day, he and Kirsten are more or less living their storybook ending. “I’ve got plans to hug and kiss you/I’ve got plans to hug and hug and hug you,” he coos on “Let’s Go On The Run.” The Big Day contains about as much tonal variation as a leather-bound wedding photo album. Chance is more interested in celebrating the miracle of love than examining love’s warts, or the labor required to build and sustain a lasting marriage.
就像Chance会在《The Big Day》中向你讲述的那样，他和Kirsten几乎过着童话般美满的结局。“I’ve got plans to hug and kiss you/I’ve got plans to hug and hug and hug you（我计划抱抱你，亲亲你/我计划抱你抱你再抱你），”他在“Let’s Go On The Run（我们一起远走高飞）”中柔声唱到。《The Big Day》中的音调变化就像皮面装订好的婚礼影集那么多。比起审查爱情的毒瘤或是维系长久的婚姻所需需要付出的努力，Chance显然对于庆祝爱的奇迹更感兴趣。
While Chance’s prodigious storytelling abilities are generally wasted on his incessant hem-kissing, they briefly come alive when he cops to cheating on “We Go High,” a song about a time when his relationship with Kirsten came to a grinding, precarious halt: “My baby mama went celibate/ Lies on my breath, she say she couldn’t take the smell of it/ Tired of the rumors, every room had an elephant/ Tryna find her shoes, rummaging through the skeletons.” On “Eternal,” an allusion to his infidelities illuminates an intimate snapshot of the ways they spend their time together: “Side chicks can’t take out splinters/ Side chicks make they Kool-Aid with Splenda.” The Big Day’s lengthy, watered-down run-time makes it easy to lose sight of these important wrinkles.
Chance那惊为天人的叙事能力在这专中也基本浪费在无穷无尽的讨好和亲昵中了，只有当他在“We Go High（我们保持高尚）”中谈到谎言时其叙事能力才又得以展露，这首歌描绘的是他与Kirsten的关系陷入了漫长又不稳定的停摆：“My baby mama went celibate/ Lies on my breath, she say she couldn’t take the smell of it/ Tired of the rumors, every room had an elephant/ Tryna find her shoes, rummaging through the skeletons.（孩子的妈妈要开始禁欲/我的一呼一吸都满是谎言，她说她受够了这味道/厌倦了流言，每间房子里都塞着大象/想找到她的鞋，在骷髅中翻找。）”在歌曲“Eternal（不朽）”中，一些关于不忠的影射勾勒出了他们平时一起生活的快照：“Side chicks can’t take out splinters/ Side chicks make they Kool-Aid with Splenda.（情妇们可不会帮你从身上取出玻璃渣/情妇们只会用善品糖做Kool-Aid饮料。）”《The Big Day》那冗长而稀松的专辑长度使得人们很容易忽视这些重点。
To Chance’s credit, The Big Day achieves the festive vibe of a wedding not only through explicit descriptions (“Backyard blasted, dance ’til it’s grassless / Patio glass, the mazel tov cocktails”), but also in his repeated efforts to coax old heads onto the dance floor. The album’s most fun tracks invoke ‘90s R&B and Chicago’s tradition of house music. There’s En Vogue on “I Got You (Always And Forever),” SWV on “Found A Good One (Single No More),” a Brandy sample on “Ballin Flossin” On juke number and future wedding staple “Found A Good One,” Chance jumps up and grabs the mic and chants, “I’m not single no more,” simultaneously celebrating his marriage and exhorting partygoers to keep on dancing. Voices on The Big Day are as far-flung as those you’d find in any sizeable wedding; guest artists range from DaBaby to Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard to Randy Newman, and actors John Witherspoon and Keith David pop up on the skits to deliver avuncular toasts.
Chance值得称赞的一点是，《The Big Day》很成功地创造出婚礼的喜庆氛围，不仅仅是通过直白的描述（“Backyard blasted, dance ’til it’s grassless / Patio glass, the mazel tov cocktails（后院都炸了，跳舞跳到草坪都秃了/空地上的草，带来好运的鸡尾酒）”），还体现在他不懈努力把老顽固们哄骗进舞池里。专辑中最有趣的几首歌都带有90年代R&B和芝加哥传统浩室音乐的色彩。歌曲“I Got You (Always And Forever)（我永远守护你）”中有En Vogue组合，“Found A Good One (Single No More)（找到心上人）”里有SWV组合，“Ballin Flossin(亲亲我我)”还有一段对Brandy歌曲的采样。在自动点唱机时刻，也是未来婚礼的主要环节“Found A Good One”中，Chance跳出来一把抓过麦克风反复唱着“I’m not single no more（我不再是单身了），”既庆祝着自己的婚姻，也劝来参加派对的人们别停下舞步。《The Big Day》中的声音种类广泛到你在多大规模的婚礼上都能听到；邀请来的艺人从DaBaby到Death Cab For Cutie的主唱Ben Gibbard再到Randy Newman，甚至还有演员John Witherspoon和Keith David在小剧场中突然出现献上长辈式的祝酒词。
Nostalgia has always been a hallmark of Chance’s music. On The Big Day, it often takes the form of a kind of forward-looking sentimentality, as he expresses concerns about his death and legacy. “Do You Remember” is preemptive nostalgia for the present. Later, Chance considers the benefactors of his will and wrings his hands worrying if his Lifetime movie will be any good. On “Sun Come Down” he raps, “Please don’t make no holograms, don’t wanna do it twice/ You wanna use my likeness, please approve it through my wife.” This preoccupation with the future underscores the fact that Chance exists on an accelerated timeline; he’s 26, but he’s already turning his attention to the task of securing his legacy and raising his family.
Despite its length, The Big Day is self-contained, at least by Chance’s standards. He doesn’t touch on Chicago politics, even though he recently threw his full weight behind Chicago mayoral candidate Amara Eniya and bought the Chicagoist from Cubs owner Joe Ricketts. Some of the album’s most memorable moments occur when he steps outside of his nuclear family circle. On “Do You Remember,” he acknowledging both the distance and admiration that exists between him and Chicago civilians, who “walk on eggshells and landmines [and] communicate with hand signs.” On album closer “Zanies and Fools,” he remembers falling in love with his wife at first sight, when they were 9 years old, then argues that the world has always conspired against marriage, especially for black people. It’s the first and last time on The Big Day that marriage appears not just as a pact between him and his wife and maybe God, but as a political, even subversive, act as well: “Now I wanna give it to her, Sierra Leone, serenade/ Sometimes love come with its own barricade/ Sometimes love just gotta hold, marinate.”
怀旧一直是Chance的音乐所具有的鲜明特点。在《The Big Day》中，它通常伴随着展望未来时的多愁善感而出现，Chance表达着对于死亡与遗产的担忧。“Do You Remember（你还记得吗）”一曲中就体现出了对于当下的事先怀念。稍后，Chance又开始考虑自己遗产的受益人，还紧紧攥着手担心自己的传记电影会不会太差劲。在歌曲“Sun Come Down（太阳落下）”中，他说唱着：“Please don’t make no holograms, don’t wanna do it twice/ You wanna use my likeness, please approve it through my wife（请别把我做成全息投影，不想再做一次了/你要是想使用我的肖像，请通过我的妻子来批准）。”这些关于未来的深谋远虑深刻表明了Chance活在一个加速时间线上的事实；他才26岁，但他已经把注意力放在安顿遗产并养育家庭的任务上了。
除开专辑的长度，《The Big Day》的独立性很强，至少以Chance的标准来看是这样的。他没有触及芝加哥的政治，即使他最近全力支持了芝加哥的市长候选人Amara Eniya，还从Chicagoist的网站所有人Joe Ricketts手中买下了网站。专辑最精彩的时刻就部分发生在他踏出自己的核心家庭小圈子时。在“Do You Remember”中，他承认了在他与“踩在蛋壳和地雷上，用手语交流”的芝加哥市民之间存在的距离与尊崇。在专辑的结束曲“Zanies and Fools”中，他回忆着与妻子在9岁时一见钟情，然后抗议世界总是在暗暗破坏婚姻，尤其是黑人的婚姻。这是《The Big Day》中第一次也是最后一次出现这种情况了：婚姻不仅仅是他和妻子间的一纸合约，可能还是与上帝之间的条约，还是一条富有政治意味甚至具有颠覆性的条约：“Now I wanna give it to her, Sierra Leone, serenade/ Sometimes love come with its own barricade/ Sometimes love just gotta hold, marinate（我想把一切都献给她，塞拉利昂，小夜曲/有时爱情本身就带着巨大障碍/有时爱情只是需要时间）.”
