Introducing...Chance the Ruthless
At a time when Lupe Fiasco seems to have gone over the deep edge and Kanye West has relocated to Paris in order to record his new material in an hotel converted into a tropical island with gummy bear trees and Cognac rivers, the Chicago hip-hop scene has risen to the occasion. But this time let's take a break from our cognitive dissonance over the Rap Wizard Chief Keef and talk about the 2nd City's newest face, Chance the Rapper.
Fresh out of Jones College Prep (He graduated 2011), Chance Bennet a.k.a. Chance the Rapper is not only one of the freshest faces in Chicago rap, but looks like he is on his way to taking over the world (ok, maybe not. Be he's gonna get big). As opposed to the hype-supersaturation of the current Drill star's of Chicago lead by Chief Keef, Chance is stylistically, musically, and lyrically unique from them in pretty much every way. Take a look at one of his early videos "Hey Ma" from his mixtape 10 Day:
I'm no expert, but I don't think that any of the GBE boys have made a song about appreciating their moms, let alone done it with such vigor and flavor. Interestingly enough, it may also be an apology, as his breakout mixtape 10 Day comes along with a backstory to rival Jeff Mangum's Anne Frank breakdown and Bon Iver's winter self seclusion: Apparently the mixtape came about when Chance got suspended from school for possession of weed and during that 10 day suspension, the majority if his mixtape was written and recorded.
In that tape, he is able to explore more of boundaries of hip-hop sounds than most proper albums were getting these days. He kind of sounds like Andre 3000 with a slightly more "interesting" voice but the same amount of confidence or maybe like Danny Brown if he was 12 years younger, way more chill, and slightly less obsessed with females. He's kind of like what B.O.B. would sound like if B.O.B. wasn't boring and whack.
That was Juice, a track from his new mixtape Acid Rap (which drops April 30th). Not much more to say about this guy besides I really like what he is doing and have very high hopes for his new mixtape. He is really pushing the limits of what his music (and his voice) can do musically, and lyrically he's clever, funny, and about as responsible as you can expect an internet famous 20 year old to be. And isn't that all we can really ask for.
So, yeah. Check this kid out, he's got a lot of potential and I have a feeling that you'll be hearing about him again sometime soon. I'll leave you with his latest video, a music video directed by the very funny Hannibal Burress, "Nana":
~Slam