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Music

Chance the Rapper Talks Christmas Mixtape, SNL, Kanye's "Gospel" with Hannibal Buress

"Kwaanza sketch, gentrified fried chicken, Hillary Clinton tries odd jobs."

Even the most cynical among us must stand back and marvel at Chance the Rapper's Christmas Spirit. His performance of "Sunday Candy" on SNL last year almost literally melted hearts and this year, doubling down, he broke the twinkling lights once again for a sweet version of "Same Drugs" at 30 Rock. Fearful that we might not truly embrace the season, he and Jeremih dropped a Christmas mixtape yesterday, Merry Christmas Lil Mama.

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A couple hours before releasing the tape, Chance visited comedian, occasional guest verse provider, …Lil Mama contributor, and all around champion Hannibal Buress on his Handsome Rambler podcast. They talked about the tape, Saturday Night Live, and whatever else jumped into Buress's head at short notice. Chance revealed the ideas that he pitched to the SNL writers' room—"Kwaanza sketch, gentrified fried chicken, Hillary Clinton tries odd jobs"—and said that he was working through sketches until the early hours of the morning.

He was also pretty set on the fact that he wouldn't be following his father into politics or running for Mayor of Chicago anytime soon, despite Buress insisting, "If Trump can become president of America, you can become mayor of Chicago. Easily." He also says what we all know to be true — Noname's verse on "Lost" is the best guest verse on a Chance project so far. (While we're here, "The Tragedy" is the best track on …Lil Mama).

Most revealing of all is Chance's discussion of Kanye West and the inspiration for The Life of Pablo. From the moment that Chance released Coloring Book, the consensus has been that Kanye promised a "gospel record with cursing" and Chance actually came through. It turns out, though, that Kanye's announcement was just a response to Chance's presence in the studio. Here's the "true intel," according to Chance:

"The night after I hung out with him in the studio and I started playing him records… he asked me to work on "Ultralight Beam", but it wasn't "Ultralight Beam" yet, he said he wanted to make a GOOD Friday song and make it from scratch. When we started making the beat I said let's listen to some music for inspiration. He tweeted that he was working on a gospel album. But i don't think he fully felt that after tweeting that."

Listen to the whole podcast below.

Photo via Hannibal Buress on Instagram.

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