You may not know Chance the Rapper yet — but you're about to
SAN FRANCISCO -- This is Chancelor Bennett's moment.
At just 23 years old, the rapper known as Chance has already released his third free album, Coloring Book, to critical and popular acclaim. He kicked off his biggest tour yet here on Sunday, where the unmistakeable feeling that the musician was on the cusp of superstardom was palpable. He's accomplished all that without the help of a music label.
That makes this a unique point in time for the rapper from Chicago, who got his start during a productive 10-day suspension from high school that eventually resulted in his first mixtape, cheekily named 10 Day. He's not yet a household name, but gives the impression he soon will be.
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That instant before megastardom was on display here in Golden Gate Park at the annual Outside Lands music festival, where Chance took the stage for the first date of his Magnificent Coloring World Tour.
Thousands of fans surged against the barrier separating them from the stage as they waited for the young rapper to appear. Chants of "Chance! Chance! Chance!" filled the park.
By the time Chance stormed the stage, a few minutes late, performed his verse from Kanye West's "Ultralight Beam" and burned through Coloring Book's "No Problem," these already-hyped fans were losing their minds. They screamed like it was 1964 and they'd just seen a Beatle.
The fans knew every word -- not just the choruses, the rap verses too.
They knew every word of his songs -- not just the choruses, the rap verses too. This was impressive in its own right, given that Chance's newest album only dropped in May. Doubly so given the level of intoxication the late-afternoon crowd appeared to have reached, and the standoffishness upon which San Franciscans generally pride themselves.
Even the notoriously obstinate San Francisco climate cooperated, as if it had been pre-briefed on the importance of the moment in the evolution of this artist. After two days of festival weather that didn't crack 60 degrees and hadn't seen a ray of sunshine, Chance's set had the warm temperatures and blue skies of some other city's summer.
The whole scene was reminiscent of another watershed moment in rap history, 2004, when a different rapper out of Chicago began his world takeover with a feel-good album that was made for cranking loud while cruising on a summer day with the windows down. That was the year, of course, Kanye West dropped his debut, The College Dropout, which Chance has cited as an inspiration -- and on which he's put his own unique spin.
West appears on Coloring Book's opening track, which Chance performed Sunday. "At the end of the day music is all we got," the chorus goes, with a humility and simplicity that contrasts with the current antics of the more well-known Chicagoan.
In fact, a low-key spirituality pervaded the show, with its brassy, soulful sound and upbeat songs of miracles and blessings and angels. And if the stage was church, Chance was the preacher, jumping, levitating and skittering about while working the crowd into an even greater frenzy. If someone near the front had fainted or begun speaking in tongues, it wouldn't have been particularly surprising.
Though it was just an hour set with no time for an encore in the tight festival schedule, it managed to transcend the ordinary. Here was a man who, five years ago, was sitting in a high school classroom dreaming of being a rap star. Who handed out free copies of his first, self-made mixtape on the streets of Chicago.
An artist who had since defied the entrenched rules and logic of the music industry by reaching this level of fame without selling a single album. ("I don't make songs for free, I make 'em for freedom," he explains in "Blessings.") A man who's clearly on the precipice of something even bigger than what he's already improbably achieved.
Someone who's ready for his miracle. And his turn in the spotlight.
