Saba: 'I Wasn't Afraid To Pursue Music'

Chicago is fabled as the birthplace of house music. But millennials recognise the city for its extraordinary lineage of hip hoppers – from Common to Kanye West to Chance The Rapper. And the Chicago hip hop scene is unusually communal, with many a contemporary act linked to Chance. The rapper/singer/producer Saba (aka Tahj Chandler) is no exception. Indeed, he's cut songs with Chance like Angels – from the latter's Grammy-winning Coloring Book. The pair even performed it on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

Chandler believes that this camaraderie is rare. "I think it's exclusive to Chicago," he says. "It's just one of those things where, when people come up together, they kind of stick together – and that's what we're experiencing here. So I think the more we branch out and work with other people, the more universal that mindset is gonna become for a lot more artists."

The erudite West Chicago native hails from a musical household – his father the R&B artist Chandlar (note the spelling switch-up). Young Tahj played keys in childhood, progressing to beat-making and rapping. He circulated mixtapes. His father provided ongoing support. The greatest lesson he shared? "It'd probably be just believing in myself, really – like in a way that wasn't corny," Chandler says. "A lot of adults tell young people to believe in themselves, but I feel like my dad taught me in a way where I actually believed in everything that I was doing, even from a really young age. It kinda inspired this fearlessness. I wasn't afraid to pursue music. So I think that was the most important thing that I really learned from my dad. Watching him pursue music inspired me to also do that – but there was a fearlessness to it. I think a lot of people who wanna do music get afraid. So that's one of the things I learned from him: just being fearless." Chandler collaborated with Dad (and Chicago speed rapper Twista) on GPS – the first taste of his 2016 debut album, Bucket List Project. 

"It kinda inspired this fearlessness. I wasn't afraid to pursue music. So I think that was the most important thing that I really learned from my dad."

Inevitably, Chandler is best known for that association with Chance – his breakout a cameo on the mixtape Acid Rap. "It's never been super-planned," he says of their collabs. "It kinda just always happened." However, the polymath is developing a vibrant musical identity of his own. In April, Chandler presented his acclaimed second album, CARE FOR ME – a jazzy, soulful, intriguingly Bone Thugs-N-Harmony-influenced rumination on trauma, social anxiety, family, memory and faith. It's dedicated to his cousin and dearest friend, Walter Long Jr, aka rapper John Walt, who was fatally stabbed. "It's kinda weird that it's out," Chandler ponders. "It still feels brand-new to me." In fact, he's yet to gain perspective on CARE FOR ME. "I wanna be able to take it in a little more and just be able to stop what I'm doing and really be able to appreciate it, but you've gotta keep moving. So I've not really had much time to process anything yet."

Chandler laughs when asked if he might show up on Kanye West's upcoming joint project with Chance, Good Ass Job. "I have no clue. I mean, we'll see. I probably know as much about it as you do, honestly! I've seen something on Twitter, but I haven't heard anything or seen anything about it. So I don't know. We'll see." 

Today, Common is a Hollywood star, but Chandler isn't looking to direct his creativity beyond music. "I think, for right now, my focus is pretty much only music and just furthering my sound and trying to become a better musician. Rap is a very limitless idea and a very limitless concept. So, for me, I wanna focus more on trying to expand the actual musical element: learning how to play piano better and learning how to sing better and learning how to produce better and doing all of these things just better." Curiously, Chandler isn't necessarily familiar with Chicago's '80s house boom – that's his father's generation. "My girlfriend, surprisingly enough, is really big into house... I hear the big records that just have been playing in Chicago forever, but I'm not super-knowledgeable in the house music area."

Chandler has enjoyed touring internationally. He's touched at how audiences in non-English-speaking countries know his lyrics, but can't converse after the show. Now he's touring Australia for the first time with a slot at Fairgrounds Festival and headline gigs. Due to logistics, Chandler has modified his set. "It'll be a little stripped-down compared to my usual show," he admits. "But every show we do is 100%." One of the CARE FOR ME numbers always goes off live. "The song LIFE is usually the song that gets the best response. But, when we do any of the new album, it's kinda like a crescendo effect where it sometimes starts super-vibey and super-chill and then it explodes by the end of the show."