Chancelor Johnathan Bennett (born April 16, 1993), known professionally as Chance the Rapper, is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, and record producer from Chicago, Illinois.
He initially gained attention after releasing his 2012 debut mixtape 10 Day (named for the circumstances of its recording, being produced during and after his 10-day suspension from high school for smoking marijuana), which caught the attention of the likes of record producers Chuck Inglish and Blended Babies, and of Childish Gambino, who took him on tour as his opening act. In 2013, Chance broke through into the mainstream in his own right with the mixtape Acid Rap, which appeared on multiple lists of the best albums of the year and propelled him into collaboration opportunities with the likes of Lil Wayne, Skrillex, Justin Bieber and Madonna.
He followed that up first with SURF, an album credited to his band The Social Experiment (of which he effectively served as the frontman), before cementing his stardom with his 2016 mixtape Coloring Book, which debuted on the Billboard charts through streaming alone (before that was commonplace), became the first mixtape to win the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, and gave him a hit single with "No Problem". After a string of further successful collaborations (including "I'm the One", a Billboard No. 1 hit with DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber, Quavo and Lil Wayne, and "Ultralight Beam", with his idol Kanye West), Chance released his first official studio album, The Big Day, in 2019, to mixed response and an online backlash that heavily affected his reputation, sparking a lot of memes about its focus on his marriage (to his teenage sweetheart, Kirsten Corley).
In addition to his music, Chance voiced Bob Marley in Black Dynamite and Bushbaby in The Lion King (2019), and served as both host and musical guest on a 2019 episode of Saturday Night Live. He was also originally intended to host the 2020 Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards until the COVID-19 Pandemic hit, with the rescheduled ceremony eventually being hosted by Victoria Justice. In 2022, he was announced to be one of the coaches on Season 23 of The Voice.
Discography:
- 10 Day (2012)
- Acid Rap (2013)
- SURF (2015) (with The Social Experiment)
- Free (Based Freestyles Mixtape) (2015) (with Lil B)
- Coloring Book (2016)
- Merry Christmas Lil Mama (2016) (with Jeremih)
- The Big Day (2019)
- Star Line Gallery (TBA)
Tropes:
- Ascended Fanboy: Of Kanye West, who he got to work with on West's "Ultralight Beam" and his own "All We Got" from Coloring Book. "Good Ass Intro" and "Good Ass Outro" from Acid Rap both refer to West's unreleased album Good Ass Job (which eventually became My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy), with "Good Ass Intro" sampling "I'm Good", the intro to West's pre-College Dropout mixtape of the same name.
- Chance and Kanye did at one point claim they were finishing Good Ass Job as a collaboration album, though it has yet to see the light of day.
- Boastful Rap
- Christmas Songs: His 2016 Christmas mixtape Merry Christmas Lil Mama
- Insistent Terminology: While The Big Day was billed as his first official album, both Acid Rap and Coloring Book have been functionally treated as albums, with both of them appearing on "Best Albums of the Year" lists and Coloring Book winning the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album.
- Sampling:
- "Good Ass Intro" interpolates both "I'm Good", the intro to Kanye West's early mixtape Freshman Adjustment 2, and "Faithful" by Common.
- "Juice" samples Donny Hathaway's cover of "Jealous Guy" by John Lennon.
- "Fuck You Tahm Bout" samples "Fuck This Industry" by Waka Flocka Flame.
- "Juke Juke" samples "Between The Sheets" by The Isley Brothers.
