Chicago producer Smoko Ono has shared a luminous new single titled ‘Winners’, linking up with local rappers Chance The Rapper and Joey Purp, plus London’s Yxng Bane, for the afrobeat-inspired track.

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Over a minimalistic soundscape built on bright, tropical synths and breezy percussion, Chance, Purp and Bane all muse on their resilience as artists in a merciless industry.

Chance’s verse stands out on the track, with the Savemoney stalwart rapping: “Man I swear this shit is cutthroat, even though I give no fucks though / They claimed the money changed me, they didn’t even like me when I was broke / Say I’m sleeping on ’em, they ain’t like me when I was woke / Say I’m falling off, but you ain’t like me when I was dope.”

Have a listen to ‘Winners’ below:

‘Winners’ comes as Smoko Ono’s second track for the year, following ‘You Are’ – which featured Seattle singer UMI and the Leeds-based Corrine Bailey Rae – back in May. Both tracks are set to appear on Smoko Ono’s as-yet-untitled debut album, set for release in the first quarter of 2022 via Payday Records.

Last month, Chance released a concert film titled Magnificent Colouring World, recorded at a secret concert he put on in 2017, just after he’d won three Grammys for his 2016 record ‘Colouring Book’. Back in March, Chance released the solo single ‘The Heart & The Tongue’.

Last May, Yxng Bane released the mixtape ‘Quarantime: The Lost Files’. NME labelled it one of the best “lockdown albums” of 2020, writer Gary Ryan saying “rather than coming on like a desk-clearing exercise, it was packed with afrobeats, R&B and dancehall anthems that served as a distraction to the enveloping gloom”.