There was once a time when Chance the Rapper's career dealt with questions: Where was his life headed? Was God even present in it? Was he becoming the man he was supposed to be? For Chance, his breakout mixtapes 10 Day (2012) and, mainly, Acid Rap (2013) are the summation of those thoughts; still, the answers to those big life questions would come in the months leading to 2016.

An angel named Kensli, his firstborn daughter, entered Chance's life in September 2015, reigniting his relationship with the church and making the manifestations he laced in his rhymes feel so much more obtainable. His lyrics were now full of guarantees, not just goals. On his 2015 single "Angels," he asserted himself as the "blueprint to a real man," and on Kanye West's "Ultralight Beam," he pledged to do a "good-ass job" with his third mixtape, firmly cementing his GRAMMY aspirations on wax. Those promises, driven by his faith, led him to Coloring Book.

On Coloring Book, his third solo mixtape, Chance took a literal leap of faith, introducing elements of gospel music into his art and expanding his artistic reach via A-list collaborations with Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber, Jay Electronica, gospel legend Kirk Franklin and others. The approach paid off: Released in May 2016, Coloring Book ushered in Chance's mainstream breakthrough and marked a turning point for the music industry as a whole. The mixtape became the first streaming-exclusive album to chart on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 8, as well as the first streaming-only album to win a GRAMMY, including GRAMMY wins for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Performance ("No Problem") at the 59th GRAMMY Awards in 2017; Chance also won the GRAMMY for Best New Artist that same night.

On the road to Coloring Book, Chance the Rapper found God, found his calling as the world's best dad, and found his face all over his Chicago hometown. The groundbreaking mixtape has since led him to the release of Magnificent Coloring World, his new concert film premiering today (Aug. 13) and screening exclusively across AMC movie theaters nationwide. The film chronicles a secret concert Chance filmed in Chicago in 2017 following his historic GRAMMY run.

To celebrate the fifth anniversary of Coloring Book, as well as the release of his coinciding Magnificent Coloring World concert film, GRAMMY.com spoke with Chance the Rapper and some of the collaborators behind the mixtape, including executive producer Peter CottonTale, longtime collaborators Nico Segal and Nate Fox, Kirk Franklin, and others, about the making and ever-evolving legacy of Coloring Book.

The Tide After Surf

Nico Segal, formerly known as Donnie Trumpet, pushed the envelope on Surf, his 2015 album with the Social Experiment, a collaborative group featuring Chance the Rapper, Peter CottonTale, Greg Landfair Jr., and Nate Fox. The album introduced Chance to Chicago Recording Company (CRC), a recording studio in Chicago where he would eventually record and piece together the majority of Coloring Book in early 2016. Where 2013's Acid Rap saw Chance link with the likes of Action Bronson and Childish Gambino, Surf turned it up a notch, introducing him to Busta Rhymes, J. Cole, and the endless possibilities of collaboration.

Nate Fox (Producer/writer): I tend to think about Coloring Book from its very, very beginnings while we were still making Surf. There was a nice crossover, as far as when we were working on Surf and the things we were doing in between. I don't feel like there was any real notable date or thing that happened where we said, "OK, this is the direct start of Coloring Book," because it just kind of flowed really nicely from Surf and all the records that we did in between. And then all of a sudden, we were like, "Are we working on an album?"

Chance the Rapper: Surf was where we started using CRC [studios in Chicago] and doing live recordings of choir and band. For all of my projects, 80% of the projects get completed in the last three weeks; that's how I work. But Coloring Book was based on that live sound, studio recording feel, and with Surf, that was something we figured out toward the end. So there was a time of air mattresses, flying back and forth to different studios to go pick up sessions that we'd left places and trying to piece everything together in this very hectic way. And Coloring Book, from its inception, was like, "I want big choirs, I want the band to be on it, I want to have big features." That was something we never really did on Acid Rap or 10 Day, even though they had big features for me at the time. But it wasn't until Surf that we were like, "I think we can get whoever we want on this: J. Cole, Big Sean, Erykah Badu, Busta Rhymes."

Nico Segal (Producer/writer):  There was some music I can remember that had been made in the Surf era and just didn't fit or just didn't get finished and then ended up being a part of Coloring Book. The main one I can think of is "Drown," which was a beat that I made initially with Noname, and it was made, I'm pretty sure, before Surf. You can kind of tell by even the title "Drown." Chance ended up working on it and really wanted to include it in the story. You never really know how you're going to end up using it. And sometimes, it's really clear, and sometimes it just takes more time. It's actually a really freeing thought, because sometimes in music, it can be really intimidating to be like, "OK, I'm working on this song, or these collections of songs. This is the album, this is it, this is all I can do. This is all it'll ever be."

Chance: A lot of my confidence in being able to get big artists came from working with Nico on Surf and saying that I wanted to get somebody on the song or him saying it. On Coloring Book, I was like, "Oh, there's no way that I'm not going to have Jay Electronica." I just had this new confidence at that time to reach out to people and keep hitting them back over and over again and fly out to some city.

Segal: I think Chance was just naturally also better at what he does by the time we made Coloring Book. I think that's true for all of us—we were all just better musicians and better producers. Not that Surf was like the exercise to get to Coloring Book. But I think with every project, you learn a ton about yourself and about making music in general, and I think it was just a natural progression.

'Let's Do A Good-Ass Job With Chance 3'

During the Coloring Book sessions, and while the rest of the world had no idea what Chance and his team were cooking up, the rapper made a promise on one of the most public platforms imaginable: a Kanye West album. On "Ultralight Beam," the opening track to West's 2016 album, The Life of Pablo, Chance raps, "I made 'Sunday Candy' / I'm never going to hell / I met Kanye West, I'm never going to fail / He said, 'Let's do a good-ass job with Chance 3 / I hear you gotta sell it to snatch the GRAMMY." Kanye, initially, wasn't too into Chance making such declarations, but Chano had a feeling about this one.

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Chance: Having this confidence was a new thing. Acid Rap and 10 Day were a lot about me trying to figure out who I was. Acid Rap deals a lot [with] questions. And I had all these questions for if God is really gonna be there for me, if I'm gonna make it, if I am the type of person I say I am. And then Coloring Book is just a lot of answers. I'm making this decision to be in my kid's life. Beyond being in my kid's life, I'm gonna be a father, I'm gonna be committed to a philosophy of life through what Christ teaches us, and I'm gonna stand on this idea that I can speak things into existence. I rapped on Kanye's s*** right before it came out that I was working on these three GRAMMYs, and I was like, "If I keep rapping like that, and just saying s***'s gonna happen, that's just gonna happen." And it started happening.

Peter CottonTale (Executive producer): In our camp, sometimes we say, "Everything's made up." We create everything. [Chance has] always been claiming his existence or his manifestations in music … And not just through his rap music, but through his daily life, his actions. It just started to explode and flood out on Coloring Book.

Chance: Kanye didn't want me to say that [line] on that song. And I had to go back and forth with him about keeping my line on there. That whole experience of working on [Pablo] was very transformative for a lot of people around me, because I was 40% of the way done with Coloring Book. I was listening to a lot of gospel [then]. So, when I came to the camp, any time I got the aux cord, I was playing Fred Hammond or talking about something I read in the bible. It was a different vibe than what Kanye had hit me up for because I was coming off the heels of Acid Rap. So, I had this different vibe and energy, and it was very well received. Kanye was like, "I wanna have more gospel [moments] on this album," and people eventually started calling it a gospel album. Just being in a position to rap [with] the person who probably is the reason I became a rapper—to be able to produce and write and to be featured on the intro, the first real rap verse you hear on the album, was crazy to me. I was, at that time, speaking it into existence like, "Kanye gonna hit us up soon. You gonna be working with 'Ye soon." And when that happened, I had to keep doing that. I had to keep being like, "I'm gonna just say what's gonna happen."

Chance's Vision And The 17 Air Mattresses That Brought It To Life

The transition from Surf into Coloring Book was seamless, according to Chance's collaborators. Tracks like "Angels" and "Same Drugs" came together pretty early on into Coloring Book. But in the beginning months of 2016, once his vision began to solidify and he knew how distinctly he wanted to talk about faith, thanks to some inspiration from Kirk Franklin records and the world around him, Chance's team made CRC their new temporary home. Chance's daughter Kensli even got an air mattress for the process.

CottonTale: I feel like Coloring Book readjusted all of our sleep schedules permanently. Chance had a lot of family things that he was growing and maturing through. We might have been getting off tour or getting ready for a tour, or something of that sort. But man, it was a lot of figuring out, a lot of traveling. A lot of different studios and inspiration here and there, and then fighting through no inspiration here and there.

Chance: I think I had such a concrete idea of what I wanted to do with Coloring Book that I don't normally have from the jump of a project; I knew the colors of it. I knew the choir aspect. I knew how unapologetically I wanted to talk about this understanding that I had from the jump, from when I first made "Angels." I remember talking about being this blueprint to a real man.

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Saba (Featured artist on "Angels"): Honestly, both of those projects [Acid Rap and Coloring Book] were crazy, and it always feels like extra attention. I'm sure his answer might be different, but for me, my job is to go in the studio and do the best that I can; that's what I feel like I did in both instances. You never know if songs are gonna be released or not, so a lot of times, it's not even worth it to think about extra attention and stuff like that because that's something that could just distract you from the job. I was just happy to be on both, honestly. At the time, those were two of the biggest things that I had done.

Fox: ["Same Drugs"] was such an important song, I'm sure to Chance but to all of us [as well]. It was so beautiful and it was a great example of what we see in Chance as a songwriter every time he touches the pen to the pad, because it's just such an undeniably perfectly written song. From his standpoint, it was very, very important to us that everything about the song and in the song's production matched and was at least equal. I knew we couldn't beat him on this one. But I knew we could at least do everything we could to try to equal what he was giving us.

Segal: He does have that level of intention, in all his words, and he does bring that to the music in general. He understands the full package better than … [most] artists. It's pressure, I guess, to make something on that level with somebody who really cares about the whole package.

Fox: We've never really had deeper conversations or specific conversations about Chance's vision, because he always does a great job of giving you the metaphor or the image that you need to get the job done. And it can be personal to you.

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Chance: [Coloring Book] was a lot about my relationship with God, Chicago, choirs, and all this type of stuff. But the structure of it and the immediacy of it getting finished came because I became a father for the first time. I was 22. I was very, you know, just figuring s*** out still. After I had [Kensli], it made me get a lot more consistency and structure in my life, which was different from how I've been before that s***. I'm still not perfect.

Kirk Franklin (Writer, producer and featured artist on "Finish Line/Drown"): Honestly, I am always humbled when someone tells me I inspired them to create greatness. I am just thankful that God allows me to borrow something from Him every now and then that blesses someone. I know it is not my own lyrics or melody that was the inspiration, but God's. Anytime I can point someone back to the Father, I'll take it.

Chance: It's crazy think to think about [how] my kid was sleeping on air mattresses at the studio. And we were really working hard on that at a time when she was an infant.

Fox: Around that time, we were working on an album for Grace Webber. And as soon as Nico recorded the horns on "All We Got," I was just so gassed ... We hadn't really made much of it yet. As soon as we sent it to Chance, he heard the horns and called us like, "The f*** is this?" And then when he was like, "I'm gonna send this to Kanye…" And then Kanye sent us back this curve, bro. He sent us back the craziest MPC take. I don't know if he listened to a click or if he did it in headphones or if it was just really loud in the studio, it was madness. But we ended up comping a great couple sections, piecing it together.

Chance: [Coloring Book producer] Francis [and the Lights] has this thing where he uses this plug-in, and basically he finessed it where he can choose the harmonies that he sings on top … One of my favorite places that it's used is on Kanye's vocal [on "All We Got"]. And that's how he started working with Francis so closely. I brought him to a session for "All We Got" and had him freestyle sing, while Francis [played] the chords over his vocals; that's what ends up becoming the "music is all we got" [in the song]. I just remember Kanye being so enamored with the sound and with what he could do with his different vocal inflections and what Francis would add as his other vocal harmonies. Just being in a session with somebody I looked up to so much ... It was just crazy.

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CottonTale: Sometimes Chance would reach out to a feature or sometimes we'd be in a certain place and they pull up to us at the studio and we all catch a vibe. Sometimes we'd end up making some beats or chop it up in the studio with Francis, or Kanye just sends a verse. Any artist, any feature, I feel like they just came for it. It was almost like—I don't want to say the rap Olympics, but it was fun to watch people approach Chance's music, the music we were making, in different ways. Here are all different ideas from these different artists. Some that made it on the tape, some that didn't. That process was enlightening, to say the least.

Josephine Lee (President/artistic director of the Chicago Children's Choir, which featured on Coloring Book): It was exciting for all of us—kids and adults alike—to see this artist from Chicago with an extraordinary gift thriving. Our singers could relate to Chance, and they knew they would be part of a history-making experience through this project. We were so honored to embark on this work, and wanted to share our artistry in any way we could.

Chance: "Finish Line/Drown" just went through so many different iterations. That song literally had like 20,000 sessions. Eventually, T-Pain got on the song and made the chorus [with] Kirk Franklin [and] Noname. I think I recorded the verse for that [song] the day before it came out. A lot of stuff that's not industry standard when it comes to how you adjust an album to submit it to a streaming service, a lot of those rules didn't apply at the time for me. Just because we were doing it without a label and I was the person doing it, and I didn't have a deadline or anything.

Franklin: Man, it was such an honor to work with my little bro [Chance] on such an impactful song. Working with Chance isn't like work at all. We are both such creative individuals that there is a natural synergy there. I normally start with the lyrics and melodic line of the words to make sure that the lyrics can stand alone. However, Chance creates sonically, and seeing the sonics speak just as if they were their own lyrical story was amazing. Once the record was cut, I don't think any of us knew how far that song would go.

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Lee: Peter CottonTale called to invite Chicago Children's Choir to take part in the recording. For "All We Got," "How Great" and "Finish Line," we had the music arranged, brought in the orchestra, and recorded the tracks with our singers. When we recorded "How Great," we were all living in this euphoric moment and feeling the power of our voices united for a great purpose. We knew this would be a showcase of the best of what Chicago youth has to offer. Chance was so joyful, and that energy is contagious.

Chance: For "Smoke Break," I got Future's verse literally at midnight right after I uploaded [Coloring Book], so I had to re-upload the album. A lot of last-minute things that came together fell into place, and it always makes me feel really good when I hear someone say the mixtape is perfect. Because it was something that was made with many imperfections and last-minute touches.

Fox: We had some really great talks as a group early on, and we had some moments of realization and really just recognizing how extremely blessed we were to find each other. We all come from different places and have a lot of different upbringings and different family histories. The fact that we were all able, as a group, to come together and recognize those things made us realize that anytime we were working on things together, there was a bigger purpose. It was always important to focus on that, so we never really paid attention to the other things or really had any expectations, either. I guess the expectation was always just to appease God. Ultimately, are we doing it right, you know? Man, if those things felt good, if those things felt right, then I think we were already proud before we put it out.

Release, Reception And Realizations

Coloring Book saw a big release week, and, as the crew recalls, Chance's face was nearly unavoidable thanks to a poster campaign marketing the mixtape. But those posters only showed a fraction of the impact that Coloring Book would ultimately leave. With its legacy still unfolding today, beyond its historic GRAMMY wins, Coloring Book now continues its momentous journey and ongoing evolution via the newly released, massive concert film, Magnificent Coloring World.

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Chance: [When I think of the final tape], I think a lot about the cover art of the project. The cover art was done by this dude, Brandon Breaux. He was an accomplished Chicago painter when I met him as a kid, and he did my first couple of joints. I specifically think of the cover [when I first think of the tape] because he took one of the first pictures of me and my daughter Kensli. But I just think a lot about taking that picture with her and the pride on my face when I was looking at a person who's gonna exist after me and who's gonna have their own ideas and walk around with a very similar face, but a whole different set of experiences. He painted the picture and he would talk about the look on my face and the motivation on my face in the painting that he made. So I always just loved that picture.

Segal: In Chicago on release week, [we were] just completely flooded with his face and this beautiful image; it was a really special moment in the city. Chance was kind of this rising star, but I guess Coloring Book was kind of like, "No, no, he is risen." It was really like, "This dude is a big deal," big superstar-moment just seeing him everywhere and the wave of Coloring Book taking over the city.

Knox: I knew [Coloring Book] was going to be very special from some of the very first sessions I was in. I remember hearing "No Problem" for the first time and hearing Lil Wayne's and 2 Chainz's features and just losing my mind. I didn't think it was going to be as big as it was; I just knew people were going to really like it. But I never anticipated a nomination from any award ceremony. I didn't believe that an independent artist in 2016 was even in consideration for legit accolades, but Chance was the one that showed us you could do it.

Chance: I do remember being sad in the first couple of nights because I was receiving some negative tweets around it. There were a lot of people saying, "Oh my god, it's a f****** gospel album." That was the main conversation around it, like, "This dude tricked us and made a gospel project." That wasn't really my intention. I never wanted to make a gospel album. I like all my projects to talk about some realistic stuff, whatever I'm going through at the moment. Within 24 or 48 hours—I don't remember what it was or if it started receiving positive press, or if I started going outside and seeing actual people tell me how they felt about the project, but I remember at a certain point, just getting past that and feeling loved and well-received. A lot of people wrote about how it brought them back to church on Sunday when they were kids, or brought them closer to Jesus or their faith. And I just remember feeling like, "Damn."

CottonTale: The songs that I did were very, very Christian-based. They had a very gospel or inspirational foundation. I find it kind of scary to be in that space sometimes. But I feel like it was something I didn't expect. But it was something that I was hoping would open doors for people to express themselves, faith-wise, in the hip-hop arena. Kanye said it best: "If I talk about God, my record won't get played." When we won the GRAMMY, it made me feel like those tracks didn't go unheard. There were still people out there like us that listen and believe in God. It was a big eyeopener.

Segal: I often talk about how music is history, cataloguing people's thoughts and the times. Coloring Book was a huge pivotal moment in the music industry where streaming projects and mixtapes got a little bit more clout and a little bit more recognition. The formatting of a traditional album got reworked in everyone's eyes in this very legitimate way via the GRAMMY and via this award or this kind of recognition. I thought it was a really powerful moment in music history, and I was really proud to be part of it.

Chance: It was important to me because I went through this whole thing with Acid Rap where at the time ... streaming services weren't validated by the industry. And SoundCloud and YouTube were kind of considered a nuisance at the time. I was approached a bunch of different times by a bunch of different people that were telling me all I had to do was get an ISRC code, basically like a barcode, on it and sell one copy. And if I sold that one copy, then I'd be eligible. I don't know if it was being young and rebellious, or whatever it was, I was like, "F*** that. I shouldn't have to change for you, you should have to change for me." And I kept that attitude. And also, I obviously didn't want to sign a deal, and I wanted to continue to be able to give people access to my music without having it be a whole thing where they have to pay money or do some sort of buying. And I feel like Coloring Book helped really usher in the new wave of DSPs being considered a real distribution platform or space where music that wasn't 100% bought and owned was eligible for a GRAMMY. I'm happy for added access to music.

Segal: I think that the concept was just new for the whole world. It wasn't just the GRAMMYs, it was everyone that was coming to terms with this streaming world and music just being released in a different way. It was something that really lived on the internet and you really had to be in the know. It changed everything. And now everyone is streaming their albums and doing big deals for streams. Obviously, now the GRAMMYs and other big platforms are recognizing music in this way and from this kind of place. So, I don't think we even had the framework or even the capacity to think of what was possible with this kind of thing, because the whole world was just not really ready for that kind of thing to happen. It takes people like Chance to make that stuff happen.

Segal: We're talking about a project that literally changed the rules. Chance is always doing that. The legacy is ever-changing and ever-growing, and Chance is gonna keep coming up with new rules to break and new ways of pioneering change in the music industry. Coloring Book was probably the biggest step.

Chance: We shot [Magnificent Coloring World] four years ago, and it was an extremely strenuous project. It was a lot, a lot of work. It really speaks to all the things that I learned in the last year making virtual concerts and learning about film. But it really speaks to my resolve and my perseverance, to be able to see it and bring it to life and work out the whole [partnership] with AMC. I'm so, so proud of what we were able to do four years ago, for the project to be in the state that it was [in] even before the edits. It speaks to how polished my team was at the time, and still is to this day, to be able to make stuff like that. There [are] a lot of things to be proud of.

CottonTale: It definitely was a hurdle to figure out how to get it out cinematically, and it worked. It's still enjoyable five years later in different forms. I'm at the screening hearing people sing along. It's such a big inspiration to see some of your work ... Imagine painting something five years ago, and then you put it on the wall and someone's like, "Yeah, that's good. We should make a frame around that."

Chance: When I think about [Coloring Book], I think about my whole life. I think about the fact that I was raised by a dad who was super present, and is still extremely involved in all aspects of my life: family, business, otherwise. I think about the fact that I was raised in a church. And even though I left, Jesus brought me back. I think about the fact that I didn't fold, like I didn't have to change who I was to be in a position to get an accolade like winning a GRAMMY. Coloring Book was the best example of God and teamwork. I say that in the film, too. It's just all these different people, literally hundreds of people, all putting so much time and effort into making it as close to perfect as possible. We all won that night.

CottonTale: I think [Coloring Book's] legacy is still unfolding, but it's changed a lot of lives, and it still proceeds to change a lot of lives. More and more, I hear that it inspired people to produce or inspired people to do certain things. I'm blessed that anything I've ever made or been part of has helped somebody.

Chance: I'm the sum of all my experiences. I wouldn't have been married if it wasn't for my daughter. I wouldn't have found God if it wasn't for my daughter. I wouldn't have won three GRAMMYs if it wasn't for my daughter. The coolest part about seeing [Magnificent Coloring World] was all these people: film critics, artists, publications, fans. They showed me a lot of love, and I could tell people were genuinely proud of the actual film. But none of them measured up to what I saw with my daughter. She was so engaged and so inquisitive about what was happening in the movie. [In the film], there's this whole part where we're talking about the studio and putting together the s***. And my daughter looked up to me and was like, "Wow, you did all this before I was born?" I was like, "No, I did all of this because you were born."

Mac Miller's Victory Lap: Collaborators, Friends Remember Best Day Ever 10 Years Later

In 2020, Megan Thee Stallion solidified herself as one of rap's most promising new stars, thanks to her hit single "Savage." Not only was it her first No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100, but the "sassy, moody, nasty" single also helped Megan win three GRAMMYs in 2021.

In this episode of GRAMMY Rewind, revisit the sentimental moment the Houston "Hottie" accepted one of those golden gramophones, for Best New Artist.

"I don't want to cry," Megan Thee Stallion said after a speechless moment at the microphone. Before starting her praises, she gave a round of applause to her fellow nominees in the category, who she called "amazing."

Along with thanking God, she also acknowledged her manager, T. Farris, for "always being with me, being by my side"; her record label, 300 Entertainment, for "always believing in me, sticking by through my craziness"; and her mother, who "always believed I could do it."

Megan Thee Stallion's "Savage" remix with Beyoncé also helped her win Best Rap Song and Best Rap Performance that night — marking the first wins in the category by a female lead rapper.

Press play on the video above to watch Megan Thee Stallion's complete acceptance speech for Best New Artist at the 2021 GRAMMY Awards, and remember to check back to GRAMMY.com for more new episodes of GRAMMY Rewind.

Black Sounds Beautiful: How Megan Thee Stallion Turned Viral Fame Into A GRAMMY-Winning Rap Career

A quarter century has passed since the mainstream music world was first introduced to a bottle-blonde enfant terrible virtuoso who grabbed everyone’s attention and wouldn’t let go

But enough about Christina Aguilera.

Just kidding. Another artist also exploded into stardom in 1999 — one who would become a big enough pop star, despite not singing a note, that he would soon be feuding with Xtina. Eminem’s biting major label debut The Slim Shady LP turns 25 on Feb. 23. While it was Eminem's second release, the album was the first taste most rap fans got of the man who would go on to be the biggest-selling artist in any genre during the ensuing decade. It also left an indelible imprint on hip-hop.

The Slim Shady LP is a record of a rapper who was white (still a comparative novelty back in 1999), working class and thus seemingly from a different universe than many mainstream rappers in the "shiny suit era." And where many of those contemporaries were braggadocious, Eminem was the loser in his rhymes more often than he was the winner. In fact, he talked so much about his real-life childhood bully on the album that the bully ended up suing him.  

It was also a record that played with truth and identity in ways that would become much more difficult once Em became world famous. Did he mean the outrageous things he was saying? Where were the knowing winks, and where were they absent? The guessing games that the album forced listeners to play were thrilling — and made all the more intense by his use of three personas (Marshall Mathers the person; Eminem the battle rapper; and Slim Shady the unhinged alter ego) that bled into each other.

And, of course, there was the rhyming. Eminem created a dizzying array of complicated compound rhymes and assonances, even finding time to rhyme "orange" — twice. (If you’re playing at home, he paired "foreign tools" with "orange juice" and "ignoring skill" with "orange bill.")

While the above are reason enough to revisit this classic album, pinpointing The Slim Shady LP's influence is a more complicated task. Other records from that year — releases from Jay-Z, Nas, Lil Wayne, Ludacris, and even the Ruff Ryders compilation Ryde or Die Vol. 1 — have a more direct throughline to the state of mainstream rap music today. So much of SSLP, on the other hand, is tied into Eminem’s particular personality and position. This makes Slim Shady inimitable; there aren’t many mainstream rappers complaining about their precarious minimum wage job, as Em does on "If I Had." (By the time of his next LP, Em had gone triple-platinum and couldn’t complain about that again himself.)

But there are aspects of SSLP that went on to have a major impact. Here are a few of the most important ones.

It Made Space For Different Narratives In Hip-Hop

Before Kanye rapped about working at The Gap, Eminem rapped about working at a burger joint. The Slim Shady LP opened up space for different narratives in mainstream rap music. 

The Slim Shady LP didn't feature typical rags-to-riches stories, tales of living the high life or stories from the street. Instead, there were bizarre trailer-park narratives (in fact, Eminem was living in a trailer months after the record was released), admissions of suicidal ideation ("That’s why I write songs where I die at the end," he explained on "Cum on Everybody"), memories of a neglectful mother, and even a disturbing story-song about dumping the corpse of his baby’s mother, rapped to his actual child (who cameos on the song). 

Marshall Mathers’ life experience was specific, of course, but every rapper has a story of their own. The fact that this one found such a wide audience demonstrated that audiences would accept tales with unique perspectives. Soon enough, popular rappers would be everything from middle-class college dropouts to theater kids and teen drama TV stars.

The Album Explored The Double-Edged Sword Of The White Rapper

Even as late in the game as 1999, being a white rapper was still a comparative novelty. There’s a reason that Em felt compelled to diss pretty much every white rapper he could think of on "Just Don’t Give a F—," and threatened to rip out Vanilla Ice’s dreadlocks on "Role Model": he didn’t want to be thought of like those guys. 

"People don't have a problem with white rappers now because Eminem ended up being the greatest artist," Kanye West said in 2015. You can take the "greatest artist" designation however you like, but it’s very true that Eminem’s success meant a categorical change in the status of white rappers in the mainstream.

This turned out to be a mixed blessing. While the genre has not, as some feared, turned into a mostly-white phenomenon, America’s racial disparities are often played out in the way white rappers are treated. Sales aside, they have more room to maneuver artistically — playing with different genres while insulting rap a la Post Malone,  or even changing styles completely like Machine Gun Kelly — to commercial approbation. Black artists who attempt similar moves are frequently met with skepticism or disinterest (see André 3000’s New Blue Sun rollout, which was largely spent explaining why the album features no rapping). 

Sales are worth speaking about, too. As Eminem has repeatedly said in song, no small amount of his popularity comes from his race — from the fact that white audiences could finally buy music from a rapper who looked like them. This was, as he has also bemusedly noted, the exact opposite of how his whiteness worked for him before his fame, when it was a barrier to being taken seriously as a rapper. 

For better, worse, or somewhere in between, the sheer volume of white rappers who are currently in the mainstream is largely traceable to the world-beating success of The Slim Shady LP.

It Was Headed Towards An Odd Future

SSLP laid groundwork for the next generation of unconventional rappers, including Tyler, the Creator.

Tyler is a huge Eminem fan. He’s said that listening to Em’s SSLP follow-up The Marshall Mathers LP was "how I learned to rap." And he’s noted that Em’s Relapse was "one of the greatest albums to me." 

"I just wanted to rap like Eminem on my first two albums," he once told GQ. More than flow, the idea of shocking people, being alternately angry and vulnerable, and playing with audience reaction is reflected heavily on Tyler’s first two albums, Goblin and Wolf. That is the template The Slim Shady LP set up. While Tyler may have graduated out of that world and moved on to more mature things, it was following Em’s template that first gained him wide notice. 

Eminem Brought Heat To Cold Detroit

The only guest artist to spit a verse on The Slim Shady LP is Royce da 5’9". This set the template for the next few years of Eminem’s career: Detroit, and especially his pre-fame crew from that city, would be his focus. There was his duo with Royce, Bad Meets Evil, whose pre-SSLP single of "Nuttin’ to Do"/"Scary Movies" would get renewed attention once those same two rappers had a duet, smartly titled "Bad Meets Evil," appear on a triple-platinum album. And of course there was the group D12, five Detroit rappers including his best friend Proof, with whom Eminem would release a whole album at the height of his fame.

This was not the only mainstream rap attention Detroit received in the late 1990s. For one thing, legendary producer James "J Dilla" Yancey, was a native of the city. But Eminem’s explosion helped make way for rappers in the city, even ones he didn’t know personally, to get attention. 

The after-effects of the Eminem tsunami can still be seen. Just look at the rise of so-called "scam rap" over the past few years. Or the success of artists like Babyface Ray, Kash Doll, 42 Dugg, and Veeze. They may owe little to Em artistically, but they admit that he’s done great things for the city — even if they may wish he was a little less reclusive these days. 

Is Eminem's "Stan" Based On A True Story? 10 Facts You Didn't Know About The GRAMMY-Winning Rapper

When Christian artist Mike Teezy released his single "Communion" in 2020, he didn’t expect his song to influence a listener in New York to stop practicing witchcraft. 

The catchy rap track, which details the importance of the Christian sacrament, was pouncing through a taxi's radio speakers when it dawned on the listener that she needed to take her faith more seriously. 

The North Carolina rapper spits: "Before you even take a bite of the bread / And proceed to drink up all the juice / Better make sure that your soul is clean / And I ain't talking bout no shoes." 

After hearing the lyrics the listener immediately reached out to the rapper with her testimony. "From that moment on she threw away her tarot cards and made a decision to actually try to follow Christ," Teezy, born Michael E.J. Tyree, tells GRAMMY.com.

While this experience might be unique, Teezy is one of many gospel artists whose trap tributes to Christ are resonating with listeners both in and outside of the faith by speaking to their own experiences. 

Christian artists have "crossed over" for decades, though GRAMMY-winning rapper Lecrae may be the earliest example in hip-hop. In 2014, Lecrae secured a No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and gospel charts with his religiously-influenced Anomaly. His success would influence a generation of artists, including labelmate Wande, whose songs have appeared in commercials and TV.

Gospel Across Borders

As the son of a preacher, Teezy grew up listening to church elders using rap as a way of appealing to the younger congregation. Their failed attempts (along with Teezy wanting good non-secular music to dance to in church) is why the 32-year-old became a musician. "I was like this is corny…if I ever do [music], I would do it a different way," he says. 

Teezy believes wholeheartedly in the healing power of God. The rapper was involved in two freak accidents as a child and was told that he would never be able to walk, let alone dance, again. But within minutes of the diagnosis, the rapper was doing flips out of the hospital. 

"Miracles are real, that's why I try to share [the gospel], as much as I can — even through my music," he says.

Pulling inspiration from musical artists like Michael Jackson, Chris Brown, Busta Rhymes, and even fellow North Carolina rapper DaBaby, Teezy creates Christian remixes to popular songs, as well as make original music such as "Forgive ‘em" which gained traction when Christian podcast Know For Sure shouted it out, and of course, "Communion."

"I feel like a lot of [Christian rappers] now are approaching [music] that way too," he says, adding, "we're preaching the same message about Jesus Christ but approaching it differently to reach different people, areas, and cities."

Two-time GRAMMY-nominated Christian artist Yewande Dees, known as Wande, has had her faith-based rhymes reach the likes of people at Apple and Netflix. One of her top three most Shazamed songs, "Blessed Up," even found its way onto Michelle Obama’s 2020 playlist.

"What I hope to do is provide people who like rap music with something they can listen to without sacrificing their values." 

Wande’s music led her to being cast on Oprah Winfrey’s unaired reality series "Young & Gospel" as well as TBNx "Girl Talk," a YouTube series featuring prominent young women influencing the faith. The 27-year-old says her music helps those making a transition and seeking to change their life.

Likewise, Atlanta-based rapper Markel Stenson, known as BigBreeze, uses trap sounds like "ratchet drums" and distorted 808s to rap about Jesus. 

"When it comes to where I came from and spreading the gospel to people [living] in poverty, the trenches, or just low-income family housing," BigBreeze who’s big on relatability and has accumulated a following of believers searching for a sound similar to trap artists like Future and Young Thug. "I know what type of music attracts their ears and I know what they like to hear."

Trap music originated in the southern U.S. and many of its pioneers hail from Atlanta. Artists like BigBreeze are taking that influence and using trap's familiar beats to replace the often negative messaging in secular hip-hop with words and messages of hope. 

Read more: A Guide To Southern Hip-Hop: Definitive Releases, Artists & Subgenres From The Dirty South

"People are tired of hearing about [sex and violence]," says BigBreeze, who was raised in hopeless conditions before finding God. "If I can push this sound and get [the word] to them, then maybe it'd be a stepping stone to them wanting to open the [Bible], step in church, or wanting to just see who Jesus is."

BigBreeze and his cohort both know their audience and are reflective of larger trends. The American Bible Society’s "State of the Bible 2023" study found that 64 percent of Black people were "far more likely to be committed to Christ than any other racial or ethnic group."

Crucifying The Messenger

The use of familiar or "worldly" beats and samples in the Christian music world isn’t a new practice. In fact, a handful of Christian artists have long explored the concept of meeting listeners at a relatable place. 

Notably, Kirk Franklin and gospel group God's Property, along with Salt-N-Pepa’s Cheryl James, made "Stomp," which sampled Funkadelic’s "One Nation Under a Groove." The song snagged them two GRAMMY Awards in 1998: Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal and Best Rhythm & Blues Song. That same year, Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation also received a GRAMMY Award for Best Gospel Choir Or Chorus Album. 

Franklin later revealed that he was ridiculed by the church about "Stomp." He also confessed to purposely missing out on attending the ceremony (where he’d win his first GRAMMY) in the previous year, out of fear of being judged or seeming too worldly. "There was a time that anything that didn’t look like church was the devil," Franklin shared on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast "Club Shay Shay." 

Although intellectually outdated, this is a plight the new generation of Christian artists still grapples with today. 

For these reasons, BigBreeze was advised to switch up his sound early in his career. "When I first started [making music], it was so different from [typical Christian music]," he recalls, adding,"If God is behind it, people are going to realize where your heart is at." 

Florida-based Christian artist Alex Jean has similarly faced detractors. The 24-year-old has dealt with everything from devout Christians attempting to shut down his shows, to his comment sections being flooded with shady religious remarks. 

"If they truly knew what God's will was, then they would understand what I do and actually know why music exists," Jean says.

A New Wave Of Followers

Many Christians believe the original purpose of music was intended to minister healing, peace, and inspiration to believers. Like most Christian artists, Jean samples popular rap songs and beats while using lyrics that glorify God. His heavy-bass voice recalling the late drill rapper Pop Smoke initially grabbed the attention of people; the message is what made them stay around. 

"Music started in heaven, God created music and then it became twisted," Jean tells GRAMMY.com, adding "whenever I hop on a song or a sample, that's me introducing [listeners] to how music started and what music is."

In a little over a year, Jean’s songs "Walking In Peace" and "Forever In Faith" accumulated over 1.5 million views on TikTok. Jean even became the first Christian artist to perform for On The Radar Radio, a hip-hop platform notorious for viral freestyles from Drake, Central Cee, Ice Spice, and other influential rappers. 

Jean believes the world is craving this type of "kingdom music." 

"It fulfills human needs, it gives purpose, kills worry, adds real confidence, keeps you secure, strong — all the stuff everybody wants," says Jean, adding that spiritual music " gives you control over your life."

With over 130,000 posts with the hashtag Christian rap on TikTok, this genre continues to grow as listeners spread the holy versions of their favorite sounds. Yet, artists like Wande say none of these achievements surpass the moment when her Muslim father put aside his own religious beliefs to support her career. 

"I feel like God used my gift of music to get me closer with my father who’s not with that Christian stuff," she says. "Now he comes to my shows that are at churches…it's been cool seeing how music can even transcend that barrier with us."

Wande has not only broken barriers within her family but she’s also breaking barriers within the predominantly male space, as she was the first female Christian rapper to perform on the main stage in 2022 at the Stellar Awards Gospel Music Show in Atlanta.

Though it hasn’t been easy for the Nigerian-born Christian rapper to break into this space, she says it's beautiful to see how much Christian rap has "grown and expanded." 

"I think TikTok has been helping the genre tremendously, with so many different Christian artists going viral now," says Wande.

As far as representing her female Christian audience, Wande makes empowering songs such as, "Don’t Worry Bout It" that include stand-out lines like: "It's no division in the buildin', got the same goal / We on some different, we flowin' to save souls" and "if He said it, then it's done / Called it holy girl summer 'cause we chillin' with the Son." 

Wande and her peers encourage people who aren't fans of trap or rap to focus on the message and how it’s changing the lives of believers and non-believers. 

"I always say look at the fruit and how many people are being uplifted by the songs," she says. 

Queer Christian Artists Keep The Faith: How LGBTQ+ Musicians Are Redefining Praise Music

Lin-Manuel Miranda has consistently been between worlds. 

Whether it was growing up spending the school year in Manhattan and summers in Puerto Rico; spending the early 2000s teaching seventh grade English by day while refining "In the Heights" at night; or translating parts of one of the most beloved musicals of all time into the language half of its characters would have actually spoken, Miranda has constantly been navigating a cultural and sonic divide.

But his most consistent bridging of worlds has been between Broadway and hip-hop, most notably via the groundbreaking "Hamilton." As someone equally well-versed in Sondheim and Biggie, Miranda is uniquely positioned to bring rapping to the stage, and vice-versa. 

Miranda will expound on this best-of-both-worlds mindset during a special segment on the once-in-a-lifetime "A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop" live concert special in which he'll give both musical theater and rap fans an inside look at how and when he fell in love with hip-hop. Airing Sunday, Dec. 10, at 8:30 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT on the CBS Television Network and streaming live and on demand on Paramount+, "A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop" features exclusive performances from Public Enemy, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, T.I., Gunna, Tyga, Too $hort, Latto, E-40, Big Daddy Kane, GloRilla, Three 6 Mafia, a highly anticipated reunion from hip-hop pioneers DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, and many more. The two-hour special celebrates the impactful history of hip-hop and showcases the genre's monumental cultural influence around the world.

Below are five of the ways Lin-Manuel Miranda has bridged Broadway and hip-hop culture.

Convincing Stephen Sondheim That Rap Is The Future Of Musical Theater

Yes, musical theater's Shakespeare was aware of rap before he met Miranda. His character of the Witch in "Into the Woods" — originally brought to life by Bernadette Peters — spits some rhymes (he respectfully called his efforts an "imitation" of the genre). 

But in his 2011 memoir/book of lyrics Look, I Made a Hat, Sondheim revealed that Miranda was the one musical theater composer who might show others how to incorporate rap into the art form.

"I was never able to find another appropriate use for the technique [after 'Into the Woods'], or perhaps I didn't have the imagination to," he wrote. "Miranda does. Rap is a natural language for him and he is a master of the form, but enough of a traditionalist to know the way he can utilize its theatrical potential: he is already experimenting with it in a piece about Alexander Hamilton. This strikes me as a classic example of the way art moves forward: the blending of two conventional styles into something wholly original… It's one pathway to the future."

Starting Freestyle Love Supreme

Back in the early 2000s, during "In the Heights" rehearsals, then-recent college grads Miranda, Thomas Kail, and Anthony Veneziale used to loosen up by freestyling.

"Anthony would come in and distract us, 'Let's rap about our day!' . . . And we would just freestyle," Miranda recalled years later on "The Tonight Show." Soon, Veneziale had a second idea: they should do that in front of people. Thus, Freestyle Love Supreme was born.

The idea was simple: it was a mash-up (again with the bridge-building) between an improv troupe and a rap cipher. The extended crew of regulars and special guests eventually grew to include talents like "Hamilton" standouts Daveed Diggs and Christopher Jackson, and even Wayne Brady. The idea became so successful that FLS had its own Broadway show and Vegas residency, with Miranda still popping up frequently as a special guest. 

Making The Hamilton Mixtape

Miranda teamed up with Questlove to make "Hamilton" even more hip-hop with The Hamilton Mixtape. The project features not just covers of "Hamilton" songs by well-known pop artists, which would have been noteworthy enough. 

But more importantly for our concerns, it has a number of hip-hop reinterpretations of numbers from the show. Check out, for example, "Immigrants (We Get the Job Done)," by K'naan, Snow Tha Product, Riz MC, and Residente, which turns one line from the musical into an absolute banger. 

The project also features Nas, the Roots, Joell Ortiz, Busta Rhymes, Dave East, and many more. To make the whole thing even more hip-hop, it's mixed together by an actual mixtape DJ, J.Period. You can listen to him discuss his role here. 

Appearing On The Cover Of Complex With Chance The Rapper

By mid-2016, there were few rappers on the planet more perfectly positioned between success and innovation than Chance the Rapper. The Chicago emcee captured tastemakers with his exquisite 2013 mixtape Acid Rap, before jumping into the mainstream with the May 2016 release of Coloring Book. But before all that, he was just a kid who loved going to poetry open mics. 

So it made a certain kind of sense when Complex decided to pair him with Miranda for their June/July 2016 cover story. The two had a ton in common (and Chance, it turned out, was a huge "Hamilton fan" who would soon cover "Dear Theodosia" for The Hamilton Mixtape). But even more than their conversation, it was the mere fact of its public existence that ended up drawing Broadway and hip-hop a little bit closer together than they had been before that issue hit the stands.

Writing "Hamilton"

We saved the best — and most obvious — for last. Hamilton more than lived up to the potential to theatricalize rap that Sondheim saw in it. It showed that rapping could be a key, perhaps the key, part of a major musical, and that show could not only be great, but also be a giant, world-beating, Disney+-streaming hit. 

Its quotations and interpolations of classic rap songs served multiple purposes. They were in-jokes for the rap fans in the audience, an acknowledgement that this theater guy was one of us. They also provided Easter eggs for the Broadway set, a hope that maybe one day they would figure out that it wasn't originally Alexander Hamilton who described himself by saying, "I'm only 19, but my mind is old" or Thomas Jefferson who boasted, "If you don't know, now you know." 

Watch Backstage Interviews From "A GRAMMY Salute To 50 Years Of Hip-Hop" Featuring LL Cool J, Questlove, Warren G & E-40, And Many More