Chance the Rapper made history at the Grammys while also bringing hope to Chicago’s young people
‘For all of Chicago’
Chance the Rapper has done something unique in the music industry and in Chicago.
He made history with his best new rap album, best new artist, and rap performance wins at the prestigious 2017 Grammys as the first streamed-only album, but he also managed to instill this hope to inspiring independent artists across the nation and in his very own city, Chicago.
He proudly said in his acceptance speech: “Glory be to God, I claim this victory in the name of the Lord! I wanna thank God for my mother and my father who supported me since I was young….and for Chicago!”
It was only a few years ago, Chance started his first mixtape, 10 Day in a studio available to all Chicago high school students after being suspended for 10 days for smoking weed during his senior year of high school.
Fast forward to today, and he’s the Grammy winning independent artist who’s inspiring young artists to not sign to record labels and to speak up about issues we feel strongly about.
Chance not only acknowledged his city at the biggest stage of music, but this is monumental for the youth of Chicago, where the city sees a record number of shootings and homicides in two decades, according to ABC News.
There were 3,500 shooting incidents and 762 murders last year, with an average of two murders and nearly 10 shootings every day in Chicago and according to the Chicago Police department, 28 people were shot on the first day of January alone in 2017.
The violence in Chicago is alarming, but somehow Chance has brought that joy back and hope to young artists who could also dream of having the same success he accomplished.
He help start Open Mike Chicago — the open stage for the youth of Chicago to perform at
The arts are important, let me repeat that again — the arts are important for our new generation to express themselves in any city or neighborhood in this nation.
It’s that same reason why an open stage like Open Mike is crucial for ambitious young artists to perform and to feel safe to show their talents in front of huge crowd. High schoolers from Chicago have the opportunity to attend these Open Mikes by showing their high school ID and paying no costs or fees.
It was both Chance and another Chicago native Malcom London, who started Open Mike Chicago in 2014 in honor of a special mentor of theirs, the late “Brother Mike” Hawkins. According to their website, they wished to celebrate and expand Brother’s Mike vision and aim to teach showmanship, connect young artists, and inspire creativity within the next wave of Chicago youth.
“That place saved our lives,” said poet Malcolm London in the Chicago Tribune, “When we were upset and angry that was our place to go. We went to the library to write.”
Chance inspired young artists to question record labels and become business savvy
Chance wasn’t the first artist to not want to sign a record label for artistic freedom and he won’t be the last.
Many young artists are taking a stand against the big record labels and Chance became the face of all of it by inspiring others to choose this path too.
Not only did he make history as the first streaming only album to chart the Billboard but he did that as he became his own business mogul with the help of his team of friends and family of course.
In 2015, he was named Chicagoan of the Year and was the first independent artist to perform at SNL, proving that the South Side rapper can’t be stopped.
He did this all while maintaining his integrity and roots to Chicago and also demonstrating to others that we should begin to choose other paths than what we are accustomed to.
If it wasn’t for his father who told him to not sign to a record label without reading the contract carefully, he would not be where is today.
“They were talking about printing up contracts, then and my dad called me and was like, ‘Son, I know you’re in New York and you’re doing something really important, but remember: don’t sign anything,’ Chance remembers in Fader, “And I was like, ‘Damn, is he in this bitch?’ And moral of the story, I didn’t sign that shit.”
Yes, he could have produced the fire tracks he has now but it wouldn’t be as special. It’s the way Chance is promoting his music by engaging with his fans and making sure they’re his priorities that shows we are the new face of the future and how music should really be promoted. Not only is music free to listen to on Soundcloud and Spotify, but he’s proving you don’t need to sell your soul to record labels to be successful. Along with selling merchandise and earning profit from his concerts, Chance is making waves with his business model.
He’s the definition of Ride or Die to his friends
We all say we have Ride or Die friends but let’s be honest — there’s nothing like Chance’s team behind him and how he’s breaking that stereotype of leaving your friends behind once you find success. If there’s one thing anyone has noticed about Chicago artists is their loyalty to each other and that’s fucking beautiful.
Chance proved that with his collaboration with Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment, Surf with other Chicago natives who showed everyone in the music industry that friendships and making great music is possible.
Surf was the number #24 album of Rolling Stone’s 50 Best Albums of 2015 and it was free for everyone to listen to. The hip hop/jazz album was monumental with hits like Sunday Candy, Go, and Warm Enough that proved that the Chicago natives had one goal when they made this album and that’s to make music fucking great again.
Chance is an activist and vocal about politics
As a teen from the West Chatham neighborhood of Chicago, Chance was motivated to follow his dreams of becoming a great rapper like his mentor, Kanye West.
The young rapper made it clear in his talk with University of Chicago where he was opened to speak about his journey to the curious college students after he released his award-winning mixtape, Coloring Book.
Chance is actively engaged in politics in Chicago, which comes to no surprise since his father was a former aide to Barack Obama. In 2014, he participated in the movement #SaveChicago with his father and brother, which promoted a day without violence on Memorial Day that resulted in 42 hours without a shooting in Chicago.
He also helped promote young voters to go out there and vote during the 2016 election, where he lead thousands to the polling stations.
In a Complex interview in 2015, Chance was asked about his opinion on police brutality.
“I think, as a black man, I have a responsibility to have knowledge and have an opinion. I don’t necessarily think, as a person of influence, that it’s always my job to influence people regarding my opinion. I try to explain to people a lot: There is no singular black experience or black opinion or black thought. We are united in a lot of experiences. Because I’m a black man, the life that I live is a part of the black experience, but it’s not something I can just pass off as the ultimate.”
He witnessed the death of his friend who inspired him to become better
In 2013, Rodney Kyles Jr, an inspiring MC was fatally stabbed right in front of Chance.
Chance told MTV: “I don’t know where people think I’m from, but I’m from Chicago. It’s really just that. People wanna romanticize it and say, ‘There’s two sides to it, and it’s a beautiful love/hate story of violence and music.’ But it’s really just a very scummy place where people don’t have respect for other people’s lives. And it’s not gonna change until somebody, anybody, puts it right in front of everybody else’s faces.”
His brutal honesty about the violence in Chicago and how it has changed his life and the various lives who have also been affected by the senseless murders in the windy city.
In one of the songs from his first mixtape, he released Missing You, where he talks about Rodney and the reality of the world that he and many other kids in the nation suffer from violence.
Despite it all, Chance is bringing #BlackBoyJoy and inspiring others to do the same
There’s a lot of shit going on around the world but for some reason, a simple tweet or video of Chance doing a new challenge on Twitter, reminds everyone to smile a little bit today.
Chance has been praised for bringing #BlackBoyJoy and the inspiration he brings as a young Black rapper from South Side Chicago brings joy and it’s incredible to see someone like Chance beat the odds and make it in this industry.
He’s truly the underdog and the artist who everyone loves for being himself and he damn deserves the three Grammys he received last night.