Of all the multifarious "live session" set-ups; NPR's Tiny Desk concerts are among my favourite. The artists are literally dragged into an office, propped up against a bookcase and made to perform amongst the print-outs and coffee mugs of a working radio station in Washington, DC.
Chance The Rapper just did his stint at the coalface, having played to 23,000 people at an outdoor theatre in Virginia the night before.
His performance was interrupted by an announcement on the building's tannoy, but he laughed it off and delivered a low-key, subtly moving performance of Juke Jam and the Stevie Wonder classic They Don't Know What I Know.
Last September, Chance The Rapper told fans that he'd given his track They Say to Kaytranada for a tweak and a pinch, after which it'd be ready for release. That release, he said, was coming "soon".
This was news to Kaytranada who posted the following message to Twitter, presumably after being deluged with messages about the song.
i don't have the final version of "And They Say" so Leave Me Alone for now
Well, just eight short months later, the Canadian producer has finally gotten around to finishing whatever it was he was doing to the song - and it has premiered on Pharrell's OTHERtone program on Beats 1 Radio.
Was it worth the wait? Put it this way, you can see why it was left off the tracklisting for Chance's Grammy-nominated mixtape, Coloring Book. The central lyric is: "What they say? They say 'ner, ner, ner, n-ner, ner, ner, ne, ner.'" (although there's a great bit about cursing "like a chimney" in the verse).
Still, it's a slick, summery production with, in typical Chance fashion, a gospel choir towards the end. Back when singles had b-sides, this would have been hailed as a great b-side. Now, it's just another track that's appeared on the internet for some reason.
You can listen to a radio rip below, because 2017.
As much as I like The Weeknd and Drake, they have a tendency to wallow in their privileged misery, the poor lambs. So it's a relief to see some hip-hop artists rediscover positivity in their music.
You could argue it started with Chance The Rapper's joyous, thankful Coloring Book (he means Colouring Book) mixtape a couple of weeks ago. Now Joey Bada$$ and Wiz Khalifa are joining in, with two life-affirming tracks about overcoming hardship.
21-year-old Joey Bada$$ is first out of the gates with Devastated, a song that follows the death of his high-school friend and rap contemporary Captain Steez, who took his own life.
"I used to feel so devastated / At times I thought we'd never make it / But now we on the path to greatness / And all it ever took was patience," he sings, on what sounds to me like a massive crossover track.
Wiz Khalifa's doubles down on that message on Celebrate, with a refrain that declares: "I could've been dead / I could've been in prison / So I want to celebrate."
It debuted on his sixth album, Khalifa, last week and now comes with a eye-straining video.
The positivity is even spreading to the UK, where Makola has gone against the grain of grime with the carnival vibes of This Is London. A love letter to his home town, it's like an Afrobeat version of Lily Allen's LDN. In other words, it's very good indeed.
And that hasn't lifted your spirits, here's Chance The Rapper performing Show Me Love on national television in a cuddly teddy bear sweater.
With new records from De La Soul and Jurassic 5 also on the way, would it be too far-fetched to say The Second Daisy Age starts here?
It's been hugely satisfying to see Chance The Rapper top the charts (based only on streams) with his third mixtape, Coloring Book. Why? The record's generosity, spirituality and positivity is a welcome antidote to the narcissism of mainstream hip-hop.
Brimming with gospel influences, Chance spends most of the record celebrating his faith - apparently inspired by the birth of his first son. But he's no choirboy - there's still plenty of attitude on Colouring Book, particularly on No Problem, where the rapper sings "If one more label tries to stop me, there's gonna be some dred-head n****as in the lobby."
The song now comes with a video, featuring s Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, DJ Khaled and many more. Chance continued his commitment to releasing music for free by posting it on Twitter last night.
And here is is.
Chance the rapper ft. Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz - No Problem (Music Video) https://t.co/DeeWPhvMT8
It's Friday, so it must be time for the customary round-up of new songs from the last seven days. This week's line-up looks like this:
1) Katy Perry - Prism
Officially out on Monday, Katy Perry's uploaded her third album to SoundCloud in its entirety, in a bid to combat the people who leaked it yesterday.
The release also coincides with the first swathe of reviews. They're mostly positive - but The Guardian, with depressing predictability, has written a sneering critique of the album's lyrics.
Alexis Petridis's article is based on the flimsy premise that, when Billboard called Prism "Katy Perry's most spiritual album to date", it was somehow suggesting she had consulted Deepak Chopra and M Scott Peck to create the most insightful and revelatory excavation of the human psyche ever to appear in popular song.
Thankfully, the co-writers are mostly Swedish (to paraphrase Petridis, the liner notes read like an IKEA catalogue) and the lyrics are, for the most part, totally unimportant. And, although nothing quite strikes you like Roar, it's a thundering collection of melodic pop.
Recommended tracks: Legendary Lovers, Walking On Air, Unconditionally.
3) Eminem - Rap God
So this is what it sounds like to be reinvigorated. Eminem, on a six-minute lyrical rampage, proclaims "I'm beginning to feel like a Rap God," and actually sounds more deserving of the title than Kanye "Yeezus" West.
Lyrical gems include: "Got a fat knot from that rap profit / Made a living and a killing off it / Ever since Bill Clinton was still in office / With Monica Lewinsky feeling on his nut-sack / I’m an MC still as honest / But as rude and as indecent as all hell".
Phew.
4) James Blake ft Chance The Rapper - Life Round Here
From the video's YouTube description: "The video, shot entirely in black and white, tracks Blake and Chance as they cruise in a lowrider through an eerie forest inhabited by stallions and Somalian pirates." How can you resist?
5) Rebecca Ferguson - I Hope
"Interesting fact": The most-read article I wrote on the BBC News Website last year was this interview with Rebecca Ferguson. It wasn't spectacularly insightful, or even well-written. The public just have a huge reserve of affection for the Liverpudlian singer.
They're going to lap up her new single, I Hope, which arrives after an ugly and protracted spat with her former managers. Launching with a rollicking drum roll, you kind of hope it'll see Rebecca spitting with fury, like Rolling In The Deep vintage Adele.
She doesn't, of course, but the song is an urgent and uplifting and an instant classic.
6) Lady Gaga ft R Kelly - Do What U Want
This is only a 30-second clip but it restores my faith in Gaga's ability to write a straightforward pop song. The best ArtPop preview to date, not that that's saying much.
7) Bruno Mars - Gorilla
The Indian press is up in arms about this video, in which Slumdog Millionaire actress Freida Pinto stars as a stripper (SPOILER: Bruno Mars is seen "cavorting" with her at the end).
Pinto's representatives even issued a statement in her defence to the Hindustan Times, which protests: "Freida’s look in Gorilla is quite a departure from what we otherwise see. Apparently, when she was approached with this opportunity, she knew that this would be a reincarnation of sorts for her and she was quite thrilled to do it, being the risk taker that she is".
It's no Blurred Lines - there's a storyline to explain the raunchy bits - but I still wouldn't watch it at work, unless your boss is particularly easy-going.
