Sunday

Candy (song)

“Sunday Candy” is a song recorded by Donnie
Trumpet and the Social Experiment, from their debut
album Surf. It was produced and performed by Donnie
Trumpet (Nico Segal), Chance the Rapper, Peter
Cottontale, Nate Fox & Stix for "The Social Experiment",
and Franco Davis, with Jamila Woods singing the chorus.1
It was released on November 25, 2014 on free platforms,
SoundCloud and YouTube. It was the first single debuted
for Surf. 2

The music video was released on April 12, 2015 and
was directed by Austin Vesely. [1] Chance the Rapper also
performed “Sunday Candy” live on many stages during
his Magnificent Coloring World Tour, Saturday Night Live,
and during President Obama’s last tree lighting
ceremony. The song gave Chance the Rapper his
Official cover art for Surf
momentum into the mainstream 3 4 because of the https://audiomack.com/album/flytunezcom/surf-album
public’s many positive reviews.

Introduction

“Sunday Candy” is a song recorded by American hip hop group Donnie Trumpet and the Social
Experiment for the album Surf. Its upbeat, gospel tone and its adaptations in different forms (e.g. music
video, live performances, etc.) became well-liked by the public. This song gave Chance the Rapper his
official entry into mainstream hip hop.

Contents
1. Production
2. Release
3. Music Video
4. Critical Reception
5. Live Performances
6. References

Production
Chance the Rapper, in an interview with 107.5 WGCI, spoke about Kirk Franklin’s influence on his song
“Sunday Candy.” He called Franklin a “musical genius… He’s a choir director, dream musician.” He also
stated that the song is, “specifically dedicated to [his] grandmother who kept [him in] church”5.

Chance’s inspirations for the song came to life with the involvement of many artists. In an interview
with Fader, Nico Segal spoke about the production of this song, "’[It] specifically is a great representation
of [The Social Experiment's] collaborative efforts," Segal explained. "It's my curation, but then bringing it
to the table with all these beautiful people and including them in their own way. Jamila sang on that hook,
then I brought it to the collective. Peter added some great layers of texture and helped produce, Nate
added a bunch of drums, tons of our friends from Chicago played instruments and added their ideas.’"6
“Sunday Candy” was a collaboration of many creative minds from Chicago, which resulted in a multi-
dimensional song.

The collaboration that Segal mentioned involved a substantial team of people behind the production
of “Sunday Candy.” They include Donnie Trumpet (Nico Segal) and the Social Experiment (Chance the
Rapper, Peter Cottontale, and Nate Fox), with additional voices by Jamila Woods (for the hook), Jabari
Rayford, Eryn Kane, and Macie Stewart [1].

Release
Following the Chicago artists’ contributions during Sunday Candy’s
production, the song was released on November 25, 2014 on free
platforms, YouTube7 and SoundCloud8. On the same day, Fader wrote an
article for the release of the song stating, “As a first taste of what's to
come on Surf, ‘Sunday Candy’ is equally indebted to modern gospel legend
Kirk Franklin and Chicago's bop scene” [5].

Official cover art for “Sunday

Candy”
Music Video https://consequenceofsound.net

A few months after the song’s release, a music

video was created for the song. It was released on April
12, 2015 and directed by Austin Vesely [1]. It is 1950s
themed, centering around a candy shop. The video is
reminiscent of a low budget high school performance,
and it was done in one continuous shot [3].

Chance the Rapper gave Austin the idea to do
something theatrical with “Sunday Candy” because he
had seen The Lion King numerous times, “[Austin]
wrote a treatment for it and came up with [the] candy
shop idea” 9 . Though the idea of the song is not
Thumbnail for the “Sunday Candy” music video
necessarily about candy, they added fun to the song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4ooH8frBWg
through a literal interpretation. To get inspiration on how to shoot it in one take, they talked to
Tim Norwind, from the OK Go video series [10]. Of course, none of it would have been possible
without the people involved in its production.

The behind-the-scenes video for “Sunday Candy” gave insights on the process of making the
music video. There was a mix of black and white scenes and color scenes, with few words of
dialogue. The parts with black and white featured various emotions and people working hard on
the project. The parts in color featured the process of filming the video itself. 10

Critical Reception
The release of “Sunday Candy” back in 2014 received positive reviews. Zeichner noted in her article
for Fader that the song is, “uplifting, like the resolution scene of a holiday romantic comedy” [5].

After the music video was released in April 2015, writer Kyle Kramer raved about it in Vice’s news
subsection, Noisey. As a fan of Chance, he goes through each nuance one by one, from the musical theater
idea to the very fact that he Chance changed the way black people present themselves to the media [3].
Kramer noted that with this deviation from mainstream hip hop, “It means that Chance, like his buddy
Childish Gambino, gets to poke and prod at the world's ideas of how a black musician should present
himself and of who owns certain forms of culture” [3].

In June 2015, Anna Kendrick, in an interview with ABC’s “Popcorn with Peter Travers,” was asked to
sing a song that, “reflects [her] as this woman heading toward maturity." She sang the hook to “Sunday
Candy.” She says that the song is, “beautiful,” and that she loves Jamila Woods’ voice.11

Live Performances
The song maintained its popularity in December
2015, when Chance the Rapper was the musical
guest on Saturday Night Live. He sang both
“Somewhere in Paradise” and “Sunday Candy”
during his sets [4]. When he performed the song, he
slowed down the tempo and toned down the bop,
so that it is reminiscent of a Christmas carol [4].

One year later, Chance the Rapper performed
“Sunday Candy” for President Obama’s last tree
lighting ceremony. Complete with a chorus and the
rest of his band, Social Experiment, they slowed Screenshot of Chance the Rapper’s performance for “Sunday
down the tempo of the song like the SNL Candy” http://www.newblackmaninexile.net/2015/12/chance-
performance. rapper-gets-sanctified-with.html

In addition to the live TV performances, the song was part of Chance the Rapper’s set list for his
“Magnificent Coloring World Tour” from September 15, 2016 to November 22, 2016.12

References


1
ChanceThaRapper. “Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment - Sunday Candy ‘Short Film.’”
YouTube, YouTube, 12 Apr. 2015 www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4ooH8frBWg.97
2
Carter, Caitlin. “Chance The Rapper Drops New Song ‘Sunday Candy’ With The Social Experiment
Ahead Of 'Surf' Release [LISTEN].” Music Times , April 28, 2018 / 6:59 PM, 26 Nov. 2014,
www.musictimes.com/articles/17485/20141126/chance-the-rapper-new-song-sunday-candy-the-social-
experiment-surf-release-date-donnie-trumpet-listen.htm.
3
Kramer, Kyle. “Friends, How Great Is The Social Experiment's ‘Sunday Candy’ Video?” Noisey, 13
Apr. 2015, noisey.vice.com/en_ca/article/rjxmkd/donnie-trumpet-social-experiment-chance-the-rapper-
sunday-candy-short-film-video.
4
Kreps, Daniel. “Watch Chance the Rapper Mark 'SNL' Debut With New Song.” Rolling Stone,
Rolling Stone, 13 Dec. 2015, www.rollingstone.com/music/news/watch-chance-the-rapper-mark-snl-
debut-with-new-song-20151213.
5
Meara, Paul. “Chance The Rapper Describes Kirk Franklin Influence On ‘Sunday Candy.’” HipHopDX,
28 Nov. 2014, hiphopdx.com/news/id.31572/title.chance-the-rapper-describes-kirk-franklin-influence-
on-sunday-candy#.
6
Zeichner, Naomi. “Chance The Rapper and The Social Experiment Premiere First Song From
Donnie Trumpet Album, ‘Sunday Candy.’” The FADER, 25 Nov. 2014,
www.thefader.com/2014/11/25/chance-the-rapper-donnie-trumpet-and-the-social-experiment-premiere-
sunday-candy.
7
ChanceThaRapper. “Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment - Sunday Candy.” YouTube, YouTube,
25 Nov. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQriCKszlHc.
8
Segal, Nico. “Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment - Sunday Candy.” SoundCloud, 24 Nov.
2014, soundcloud.com/nicosegal/donnie-trumpet-the-social-experiment-sunday-candy.
9
Obaro, Tomi. “Meet the Young Director Behind Chance the Rapper's Amazing 'Sunday Candy'
Video.” Chicago Magazine, 17 Apr. 2015, www.chicagomag.com/arts-culture/April-2015/Austin-Vesely/.
10
“Chance The Rapper - Sunday Candy: Behind The Scenes.” YouTube, YouTube, 15 Apr. 2015,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=flkRtmmNj8o.
11
Stutz, Colin. “Anna Kendrick Sings Chance the Rapper's 'Sunday Candy,' Nails It: Watch.” Billboard, 12
June 2015, www.billboard.com/articles/news/6598063/anna-kendrick-chance-the-rapper-sunday-
candy-social-experiment-watch.
12
“Magnificent Coloring World Tour.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 May 2018,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnificent_Coloring_World_Tour.