Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way first: Chance is 26, married with a kid, an activist, is likely going to revamp Chicago single handedly, and just an overall great dude. His personal life is admirable, and exactly the type of success story you wouldn’t expect from a young rapper out of Chicago.
The reason behind this blog is because Acid Rap and 10 Day both just dropped on all streaming services, and the album is dropping *sometime* in July. Guess what today is? July 1st. Album soon baby!
Acid Rap and 10 Day are both classic tapes in my opinion, and they’re both now in rotation on my Spotify playlists since I don’t have to use mixtape apps anymore. Thank god. Now get all of Mac Miller’s discography @Spotify, thanks. Anyway, these tapes introduced and hooked us all on Chance, and there’s not a single song on either one of them that I can say I genuinely dislike. The rhymes are insane, he flows over every beat effortlessly, nearly every feature is great and feels like it belongs (Looking at you Ab-Soul. I’m not even going to include the exact lines, just go look up the song. You’ll know it when you see it.), and the vibes of the two tapes are perfect for any time of year. There’s few rappers that can pull this off on their first two mixtapes, and I’m glad that Chance was one of them.
Then we enter the Surf and Coloring Book era. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Surf, but appreciated what he was aiming for on it, so for that he gets bonus points for creativity. It’s an alternative-rap-ish album that had a lot of potential but it didn’t live up to it. It was great, but after Acid Rap and 10 Day this just wasn’t it. And yes, I do know that album is technically by The Social Experiment, but Chance is considered the “lead vocalist” of that band so for all intents and purposes it’s his record too. Coloring Book on the other hand was a semi return to form, showcasing a trap side to chance on the fantastic songs Mixtape with Young Thug and Lil Yachty (who arguably has the best verse on the whole album) and Smoke Break with Future, as well as the dreamy, nostalgic Same Drugs and the egotistical banger that is No Problem.
Rumor has it the only feature on Chances debut album is the one and only J. Cole. Cole has been on an absolute tear since KOD dropped last year, and it doesn’t seem like he’s stopping anytime soon. This has some serious potential to be either song of the summer or something along the lines of Renegade by Jay and Em, just on a lesser scale cause like… Jay and Em on a song? PRODUCED by Eminem?! Stop that absolute nonsense. Anyway, yeah, so some real good lyrics and story telling could come out of this, or the song of the summer could. I’m hoping it’s the first one.
What I’m trying to get at here is this: Chance has done it all, from putting out trap bangers and ballads all over his mixtapes for free and still becoming a rap icon, he’s got features with some of the biggest artists, and all of this plus helping his community, being a father and a husband, and now if his debut album is a hit, he’s got nothing left to prove. The man has it all, and as long as he stays consistent, will keep it all and then some.
Anything But E 