Chance the Rapper and his Beyonce inspired commencement speech

This past Saturday, Chance The Rapper was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Dillard. Following the honorary footsteps of his musical peers like John Legend, Kanye West, Aretha Franklin, and Diddy, the No Problems rapper graced the university’s graduate stage with his inspirational words.

Usually, commencement speeches allow the honoraries to give the newly graduates an inspirational push for the future. They express how hard work and consistency is valuable to their achievements, and the young adults are left with enough spirit to last them a lifetime.

Chance The Rapper’s personality shed brightly through his speech as he encouraged the graduates to pave the way and surpass the greats who came before them.

With a smile on his face and affirmative tone, he told the graduates, “The highest form of respect that we can pay to the people who came before us, the people who sacrificed for us and gave us everything, is to be better than them.” He add that, “Our parents, grandparents, ancestors sacrificed, not so that we can keep doing the same thing that they were doing but so that we can be better,” he adds. “To simply copy them would be almost an insult to their sacrifice.”

Chance The Rapper was honored “for his philanthropy and continued service to the youth.” He lived up to his honor by continuing to relate to the youth by using his category of expertise, entertainment as an example to encourage the graduates to be better.

Chance The Rapper Tied Entertainment into His Speech

He began by recalling a vivid Michael Jackson moment from his preschool graduation in 1997. “I was pure, 100 percent Michael Jackson in that moment. I copied what he did perfectly.” He continued to talk about the inspiration that the King of Pop had on everyone.

He added that “Generations of little black kids have been mesmerized before the TV screen or YouTube, watching as Mike seemed to do the impossible. One of those little black kids would grow up to be someone especially amazing,” Chance said.

He continued his speech by saying someone did grow up, become great, and surpassed the late and great Michael Jackson. “She would do more than just copy Mike. She would surpass him. And now, I’m going to tell you about the greatest performance put on by the greatest performer of all time, and it wasn’t Mike.”

Chance The Rapper was referring to Beyonce

Referring to Beyonce’s performance at Coachella, Beychella, Chance said that her performance was “better than any performance Michael Jackson ever did.”

He said, “In real time, in one fell swoop, she eclipsed every Grammy performance, every Super Bowl halftime show, every talent show.” He steered back to the point of surpassing those that paved the way by saying that we have a responsibility to be better than those that came before us.

“We have a responsibility to be not as good as them or live up to their example, but to actually surpass them, even when it seems scary. We have to overcome that fear and be greater than our role models,” he told the crowd of graduates. “We have to erase the fear and stigma behind eclipsing our heroes.”

“With that performance, I realized that greatness can never be stagnant,” Chance continued. “To quote Bruce Lee, ‘We must be like water, adapting to our container, always changing with the times’.”

“Living up to your heroes is amazing, but it’s not good enough. The difference between goodness and greatness is going beyond. You have to push forward and surpass their greatness in order to pay homage to their struggle,” he added.

“Beyonce had Mike. Mike didn’t have Mike. Mike had James Brown. James Brown had Cab Calloway, and so on and so on.”

Besides creating a conversational division between who was the best, Chance The Rapper had an amazing point. We have icons who paved the way for us. Take what they present and surpass them. “Right now, the greatest performer who ever lived might very well be in this audience. And that person has something Beyonce never had. They got Beyonce.”

Now, who do you think was or is the best performer?