Chance the Rapper – “Same Drugs” (Singles Going Steady)

Adriane Pontecorvo: Layered with Peter Pan references, surreal puppet side characters, and marvelous guest vocalists, “Same Drugs” is a masterpiece about growing up and growing apart. Chance the Rapper crafts a warm, soulful ballad about resisting life’s changes even as loved ones give in. His video, filtered to look like a vintage episode of The Muppets, tells the story even as he sings it: he starts out wrapped up in a childlike fantasy, and finally gets up and leaves it all behind, walking into darker, colder reality. This is a tender ode to the inevitable, artful and bittersweet. [10/10]

Morgan Y. Evans: Chance continues to make it look easy with this sort of Muppets meets festival morning , semi-brokenheated but ready to accept and move forward comedown clip. I like how he asks how the person he is singing to started to forget how to fly near the end when it, probably tellingly, starts snowing. If you have ever been in a relationship or had a friendship that you had hoped to keep positive but which turned out to have perhaps been based on certain activities more than real bonding, this will give you vibes. It probably will anyway because it is super soulful, intimate and yet almost playfully wistful at the same time. [9/10]

Steve Horowitz: Chance is growing up. His many references to Peter Pan show he’s fighting it and trying to keep the child within. But his girlfriend has left her youth behind, and he understands someday soon he will also. Wendy has shut the window. The parable makes sense as far as it goes. Chance’s ambivalence about aging suggests he understands one cannot be young forever and what a drag it is getting old. Things are different today. He can walk out the door. But where he’s going, no one knows, not even himself. [8/10]

Andrew Paschal: What begins as a sparse, rickety piano ballad gradually matures into a soulful, plaintive, and lush meditation on bygone relationships, losing none of its sincerity or charm in the process. “Same Drugs” is in fact quite sober and unsentimental in its regard for change and loss, letting the barest of facts speak for themselves and letting slip only the faintest traces of regret, which nonetheless speak as powerfully as can be. [8/10]

Chris Ingalls: Chance continues with the same template of combining hip-hop rhymes with a deep gospel flavor. The arrangement begins fairly simply with lovely hooks and Chance’s typically elastic vocalizing. Eventually, it gets weird and atonal, as if Chance isn’t happy to sit still for too long. That’s great for us as his unique and sometimes challenging style is a breath of fresh air. [8/10]

Mike Schiller: It is to Chance the Rapper’s credit that he can take a lament filled with regret and lost innocence, and turn it into something vaguely uplifting. The song itself does this to a point, but the video for “Same Drugs”, which evokes memories of Sesame Street‘s more inspired musical interludes (4:3 screen ratio and all), drives home the wistful nostalgia that Chance is going for here. It’s delightful, the way he barely keeps it together as the life-sized puppet next to him fills in the vocals, and the last minute and a half are so bathed in simple wonder and fantasy that you never really have to get around to wondering what it all means. [9/10]

Scott Zuppardo: This is one of the brightest cats getting his mainstream due. Witty, creative, and just plain fun music. Chance’s radiating positive vibe is really hitting home for me these days. A fantastic video with Muppets is just what the doctor ordered in this politico buffoonery we’re weathering, whether bringing dope lyrics and playful soul and R&B, Chance the Rapper is well-zooted. [9/10]

SCORE: 8.71