Last weekend belonged in part to Chicago’s Chance The Rapper, who gained national props throughout when he released a new music video for “Hey Ma” just in time for Mother’s Day. The song comes off Chance’s acclaimed #10Day Mixtape, and the new music video was directed by Elijah Alvarado. For those paying close attention, they’ll notice that the version of “Hey Ma” that made the final tracklist is not the original version, which was produced by Tree and dropped in the fall of 2011 as viral promo for an early #10Day listening party.
As Chance neared completion of the project, he decided to rework a couple of the records by adding more instrumentation and making them more serious. The album features denser versions of “Long Time 2”, “Brain Cells”, and of course “Hey Ma”, which symbolizes a moment of Chance breaking through and being able to take care of his family.
“It’s not just a triumphant song,” Chance told RubyHornet shortly after the release of #10Day. “It’s my favorite song on the album. I love all the songs. I love “Juke Juke” I love “Long Time 2”, the new “Brain Cells”, but that “Hey Ma” joint, that’s very important.” The song, which on the surface appears to be about his mother, is actually inspired by a long list of women who have played important roles in Chance’s life. The list includes his mom, his aunts, and even his high school disciplinarian. But it was Chance’s grandmother who played a very big role in the final version.
“My grandmother was supposed to have a very serious surgery the first week of March, or the second week of March. She had a very invasive surgery that she had to get done and there was a 50/50 chance that she would make it off the table,” Chance said. “My grandmother’s always played a huge role in my life and the first “Hey Ma” that I did that was produced by Tree just happened to be called “Hey Ma” because the first 5 or 6 bars are just me rapping “Hey Ma” about the fact that I never did well in school and I would have her stressed out and shit. But when the money comes in, she’ll be straight,” he explained about the original version.
“But the rest was me rapping about random shit, on some playful shit. With us finally getting to a point where we were finishing up the album, we were bringing in new people to work on keys, and a new person to play bass and help us with the production process. I was willing to make certain songs sound more serious… With “Hey Ma”, we just happened to be in the studio the night before my grandmother’s very serious surgery, and the shit had been on my mind the whole week. When we got in the studio I was like, this “Hey Ma” song can be like “Hey Mama”. It can be “Hey Mama”, but we just have to change it up a little bit. So Peter Cottontale came in on keys and he made it a lot more heartfelt and a lot more soulful. So that whole first verse on the new version is really a song, not just for my mom, but all the women in my life that have really helped me out.”
In addition to talking about “Hey Ma”, I also spoke to Chance about his music before that fateful suspension changed his life, adjusting to fame, and being a part of the Kanye West generation. Check back for the full interview this week on RubyHornet.com.