Chance the Rapper is a modern, professionally creative hip-hop artist. I have for a year now been drawn to his eccentric style of rap which I was disconcerted by initially, like many others. Acid Rap was his album which he released in April 2013. It enjoyed popular success and put him on the map so to speak. In this album he uses a variety of unconventional vocal techniques and has a unique voice. It can be argues that these these noticeably different contributions to the genre have not only diversified rap artists but also listeners' perception of "good" music.
In this video chance explains in brevity his motivations and inspiration behind Acid Rap. One of his main points was that he had self-discovering experiences through use of LSD. These experiences of answering questions he had about existence led him to ask similar questions of others through his music. One example of a question he says is the quandary why some black people lie about being biracial.
Since, Acid Rap Chance has collaborated with several artists including Childish Gambino, Madonna, regrettably Justin Bieber, and is now part of a band called the Social Experiment. The Social Experiment is a group of musicians whose goal is to produce free music and spread messages about social issues. More information about Chance's current exploits can be ascertained from the following video. He seems to have an affinity for radio talk shows. It probably stems from the fact that his father is a political campaign manager and taught him how to market, from his early rap days back in high school.
I highly recommend checking out his music. Even though many may find mainstream rap and its themes inaccessible, through a little bit of empathy and imagination Chance's messages of overcoming hard realities as an adolescent become relatable and.comforting. Additionally, my favorite part about his music is his conveyance of the importance of appreciating the special people in our everyday lives. Albeit few songs are just about getting stoned, songs like these that resonate sober, real emotions I feel resonate with audiences a lot longer.
Happy song:
Chance is a pretty cool guy. I think another interesting point to make is the fact that currently he is an independent artist (not signed to a record label) and has repeatedly refused offers to become a signed musician. In a heavily saturated music industry Acid Rap is a success story in an industry that has been traditionally unreceptive to independent artists. I think Acid Rap goes to show just how much the industry has changed in the internet era. In a world long dominated by international record labels, with the advent of websites like SoundCloud and HotNewHipHop, the voices of the bedroom producer and the independent rapper are louder than ever. In addition to new platforms for discovering music, the rapidly declining cost of audio recording equipment has made it easier than ever to produce music projects independently of a record label, when in the past, the prohibitive cost of recording studios was a major reason for artists to sign record contracts. Anyways I digress, I think Chance is cool because he's a cool symbol for a changing music industry as part of the internet era.
ReplyDeleteIt's so amazing how fans of rap music express their distaste for the same meaningless rap lyrics about repetitive topics such as drugs, money, and women, but then resist refreshing changes to rap such as the ones by Chance the Rapper touched on in this blog. People always seem to be resistant to change even when its for the best of the genre. I find it so amazing that rappers such as Childish Gambino and Chance the Rapper use that criticism to drive them forward and break into rap popularity. Rap music needs more artists with substantive lyrics such as Kendrick Lamar, because those topics are more engaging. Too often rappers run out of ideas of topics to rap about and resort back to redundancy. I hope these creative rappers that are changing rap culture as it has been known are able to encourage other artists to inject more substance into their lyrics.
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