Chance the Rapper; the Most Selfless Rapper Today

From major donations to free music, Chance the Rapper is one of the most selfless, main streamed rappers of the 21st century. Chance the Rapper, birthname Chancellor Jonathan Bennett, is a 24-year-old rapper from Chicago, Illinois. (Wikipedia; Chance the Rapper) Chance is not only a rapper, he’s a songwriter and producer for bigger celebrities, like Kanye West. His career started at the age of 18 when he had his first full mixtape called, “10 Day”. He progressed through music with his next mixtape called “Acid Rap”, my favorite mixtape, which was nominated for best mixtape on the 2013 BET Hip-Hop awards. (BET Best Mixtape Awards, Winners and Nominees, 2013). In 2016, Chance dropped his most recent mixtape, Coloring Book, and it’s the mixtape that woke up people and introduced them to the great Chance the Rapper. Throughout Chance’s career, he always kept his hometown in mind. He never forgot where he came from, always looking to better the community and give children opportunities he never had the opportunity to have when he attended Chicago Public Schools. These acts of kindness make me believe that Chance is the most selfless rapper in today’s hip-hop world. But some seem to disagree and think Chance the Rapper is a fraud helper.

In my opinion, Chance the Rapper is the most selfless rapper, as he’s done so much for his community and, more importantly, his fans. He promotes that everything is for his fans and it’s not always about him. As I mentioned earlier, Chance does not sell his music. Chance is not signed to a label, he is a free agent and is basically his own boss. In an article from Vanity Fair, Lisa Robinson interviewed Chance and he said that, “I never wanted to sell my music, because I thought putting a price on it put a limit on it and inhibited me from making a connection.” (Vanity Fair, 2017) In Eric Diep’s article, “Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book Makes a Historic Debut on the Billboard 200.” (Complex, 2016). Diep goes in depth that Chance’s Coloring Book had major numbers on the first week it dropped. As Diep talks about the successes Chance the Rapper had, he emphasizes the numbers from the first week from Billboard saying, “According to Billboard, Chance’s latest effort debuts at №8 with 38,000 units. Nearly all those “units” were generated from streams of the tracks on Apple Music and equates to 57.3 million streams. Billboard reports that each album unit is equivalent to 1,500 streams of an album.” (Billboard, 2016) His success was totally earned and he did it all for the fans.

Through all this success, I can’t be the only one to agree that Chance has been selfless through his beginning of his career. Ryan Bahan, is an author of the Article (Festival Peak, 2016) called, “What Chance’s Coloring Book Say about the State of Hip Hop.” Although his full article isn’t talking about how selfless he is, he mentions the acts of kindness that Chance always preforms. He agrees with the fact that even though his music is free, he’s still able to make an income and is a very well-known artist today. He also says that his music is meant for everyone at any state to enjoy. Even though he doesn’t charge for his music, he changed his net-worth from, “$50,000 in 2012, to over $1,000,000 in 2016,” (Festival Peak, 2016). Also, Lisa Robinson’s interview with Chance also asked him how he makes his money on a Vanity Fair article. His response was, “I make money from touring and selling merchandise, and I honestly believe if you put effort into something and you execute properly, you don’t necessarily have to go through the traditional ways.” (Vanity Fair, 2017) He also mentions that Electronic music is in every genre but Chance seems to stay away from that sound in his music. He argued in his article that, “Coloring Book does not follow that trajectory, and instead Chance embraces his Chicago roots with elaborate live-instrument compositions and tight arrangements.” (Festival Peak, 2016). He has Chicago choir’s as a sound through some songs, “All We Got” ft. Kanye West is a big example of having the choir on the track. (Coloring Book Track List, 2016). Ryan seems to enjoy the Coloring Book mixtape and, also, Chance’s originality.

Although Chance the Rapper seems like the angelic figure in the rap community, Bryon Crawford doesn’t seem too impressed with his acts of kindness. The title of his article is, “I’m Not Impressed with Chance the Rapper’s $1 Million Donation” (Medium, March 2017) Mr. Bryon Crawford adds a subtitle saying, “Well, whoopy frickin doo.” (Medium, March 2017) Even though his grammar is very inappropriate, he does not lack the amount of opinions he provides in his article. For example, Crawford explains the vetoing of a bill in Illinois, “The weekend before this announcement, Chance had a meeting with Illinois’ governor, Republican Bruce Rauner, which apparently didn’t go well. The governor vetoed a bill to supply the schools with $215 million in funding, and Chance was trying to get him to sign off on the bill, I guess through sheer force of personality.” (Medium, March 2017) Mr. Crawford has no full idea of why Chance wanted the bill to pass. According to a CNN.com article written by Deena Zura, “Rauner defended his decision, blaming state Democrats for backing out of a deal to pass pension reform.” (CNN, 2017) I understand the frustration that would go through Chance’s head but instead of just being quiet, Chance decided to donate $1 million of his money. I don’t know many artists that would do such a thing, but I know that Chance didn’t need anything else but that to inspire him to make that donation.

Julianne Ishler’s article brings up the attention that Chance is leading Chicago in the renaissance. Chance the Rapper is the face of Chicago today. Even though Chance is the face of Chicago, he wanted to include other individuals from Chicago in his “Coloring Book” mixtape. He includes producers, singers, and features that were from Chicago, including the famous Kanye West, Chicago’s Children Choir, and more. (Coloring Book Feature List, 2016) Also, Chance’s mixtape cover art was done by an artist from Chicago. Ishler explains, “The vibrant album cover was designed by Chicago artist Brandon Breaux, who also made the rapper’s last two mixtape covers.” (Medium, February 2017). Chance did not want to go through the success alone, he wanted to put Chicago, Illinois on the map!

After a lot of research, I agree with the Ryan Bahan the most. He recognized Chance’s success and all the hard work he put into Coloring Book and the merchandise. He provided facts from reliable sources about the successes that Coloring Book went through. I appreciate that he’s not speaking from a Chance fan’s perspective, but an overall music fan. Coloring Book was indeed a successful mixtape. “Most importantly, though, Coloring Book is a contemporary milestone of hip hop culture, and its presence can give us an incredibly important glimpse into what the current state of hip hop is telling us.” (Festival Peak, 2016). I just appreciated his article with all the facts he provided and I truly agree with his stance on Chance.

Although Bryon Crawford’s argument was background heavy, Mr. Crawford didn’t provide any facts. He made his article more of a political article than a view point on why he didn’t enjoy Chance’s act of donating the $1 Million. He also did not express why his donation wasn’t an act of kindness. Chance, being a former student of Chicago Public Schools, wanted the best for the kids that are getting a $46 million cut, according to the CNN article, Chance the Rapper Meets With Governor After Twitter Exchange, “Chicago Public Schools officials announced last month that they will cut $46 million from the public school budget after Rauner vetoed a $215 million funding bill in December that schools were counting on to ease their pension burden.” (CNN, 2017). If I had the money to support my community, I would do the same thing that Chance did.

At the end of the day, Chance the Rapper was being selfless with his fame. He uses his name for the people. Even though his random acts of kindness go unrecognized and unappreciated, he’s still preforming the acts of kindness. I’m still going to recognize what he does and still support him as a great rapper. I enjoy the fact of the matter that other people that like Chance the Rapper’s personality and how selfless he is. He such an amazing human being for many reasons. Although Mr. Crawford didn’t like the fact that Chance donated money, he never spoke down on his name. Chance’s independency is what makes him a great artist because he doesn’t have a record deal telling him how to handle his money or when to release singles. He is more than great talent wise and, more importantly, his caring characteristics.