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Chance the Rapper  

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Chance the Rapper, real name Chancelor Bennett, is an American hip hop recording artist all the way from Chicago in Illinois, USA.

Chance the Rapper was born in 1993 on April 16. He showed an affinity for music from a young age and was very musical at school, forming a hip hop duo whilst still in high school. It was during his school days that he recorded his first full length project, a mixtape he titled ’10 Day’. Despite being somewhat of a troublemaker, having been suspended for weed related activities, Bennett had big musical aspirations and in December 2011 he released his first song, ‘Windows’ and announced his ’10 Day’ project. After a further year of polishing his music, Bennett finally released the album on April 3 2012. It was received very well locally and made available to download via Datpiff, which it subsequently was over 250,000 times. This staggering success marked just the start of Bennett’s career and his transformation into Chance the Rapper.

Chance’s second mixtape release, entitled ‘Acid Rap’ earned him mainstream recognition and he soon began to earn a following. Released on April 30 2013, it was certified double platinum and downloaded 800,000 times. It was also nominated for Best Mixtape at the 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards that year. It was listed on multiple top 50 album lists that year and led to Chance touring across the US for the first time.

Live reviews

Chance took the stage about a half hour later and everything started out pretty normal. The word ‘angels’ was scrawled across the multi-level LED screens, topped with a halo. He wore his signature “3” cap, white t-shirt, and black jacket as the crowd lost their shit. Donnie Trumpet was joined by another member of The Social Experiment stage left, while a drummer was situated stage right. The live instrumentation brought something unique to the show, but the band kept themselves hidden in the shadows most of the set, thus allowing Chance the spotlight he deserved.

Proving himself much more than a studio rapper, Chance’s flow was impeccable, even when he had to compete with the thousands of fans who wanted to go bar for bar with him. The sense of normality continued through many of his more debaucherous tracks from Acid Rap, but that all changed after “Favorite Song”. That’s when Carlos showed up again. A life-sized lion walking on two legs, voiced by Detroit comedian HaHa Davis, became the moral compass of the show. Helping to guide Chance’s own good kid, m.A.A.d city narrative, the lion’s first request was to “take it waaay back,” which Chance did with “Brain Cells” from #10Day.

Chance The Rapper is as famous for how he’s managed his career as he is for the songs contained on his trio of mixtapes. Having never signed to a label, he has been able to maintain complete artistic freedom. That freedom was on full display on Tuesday night. Whether he was battling his demons in the form of stuffed animals, singing a duet with a furry female friend, or leading a choir of a dozen animatronic birds with an spread-winged angel behind him, Chance made it clear he was going to do whatever the fuck he wanted to do.

“I just do me!” he proclaimed at one point, before thanking the crowd for allowing that to happen. And that’s the difference between Chance and so many other braggadocious rappers. Sure, he can get down with the best of them on tracks like “No Problem” and “Mixtape”, but he also gets sentimental as hell on tracks like “Juke Jam” and “Same Drugs”.

And when was the last time you saw a hip hop show go full-blown gospel? I’m not just talking “Ultralight Beam” either. That song was incredible, of course, but it wasn’t until “How Great” turned the Fillmore into a legitimate church that I realized how much Chance’s religion plays into his live shows. He continued his role as a preacher through “Finish Line / Drown” and “Blessings (Reprise)”; the congregation consuming every word like communion.

I honestly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at that point in the night, because as serious as the message might have been, it was hard to ignore the fact that the whole scene looked like something that should be going down on Sesame Street rather than Colfax Avenue.

see more at http://ilistensoyoudonthaveto.com/2016/09/22/chance-the-rapper-fillmore-09-20-16/

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Chancellor Bennett aka CHANCE THE RAPPER has to be one of the greatest performers under the age of 25! Chance has the ability to completly capture not only his target audience but every security guard and policemans' full attention as well. His presence on the stage CANNOT be ignored by anyone that can hear. Even his opening acts were excellent, setting a perfect foundation for an amazing night. Young & Sick, Sweater Beats, and Travis Scott were extremely enticing and had the crowd well warmed up by the time Chance hit the stage. Chance's concert was a perfect balance of rave and kickback performing songs from "10 Day" and introducing brand new material that had us all singing the course before he even started the song. Aside from the unforgettable performa by Chance, I MUST shout out the Social Experiment, which I believe is his band and crew. His band, alone, is superb and its incredibly inspiring to see people my age being masters of their art. Luckily, Chance featured the band during the performance of the hidden track "Paranoia" and they shined as if they were performing at Carnegie Hall. Im really glad that he genuinely expressed his love for his fans with an exteneded version of "That's Love" dedicating individual "I love you's" to fans. What made it so touching was that fact that he requested that the fans look him in the eyes when he pointed and spoke to them giving each phrase an authentic fell. This was my third concert of many more to go for Chance the Rapper and I will be looking forward to seeing Sweater Beats and Young & Sick in concert very soon. For those of you who love live music and dont mind sweating to the beat, CHANCE THE RAPPER concerts are for YOU!!! He performs for YOU!

At the ripe age of 21 Chance the Rapper is one of newest and youngest faces in hip-hop. Despite being so young Chancellor Bennett already has two mix tapes and a few tours under his belt. His second mixtape ‘Acid Rap’ awarded him universal claim, it’s gone double platinum on DatPiff, BET named it one of the bst mix tapes of 2013, and Pitchfork gave it an 8.4 and the “Best New Music” title. While we wait for Chance to release a full length album he’s been putting out a few features with the likes of Childish Gambino, Chuck Inglish, and others. He’s also been touring the country and getting ready for the summer festival season.

Chance differs from most hip-hop MCs in that hehas the privilege of touring with a live drummer and a keyboardist who help add to the atmosphere and create a concert like experience rather than a DJ on a Macbook making beats. Chance also has a few friends help him out on stage with some ambient lighting to create some special effects that help you get in the mood for some of the more popular cuts from ‘Acid Rap’ like “Pusha Man,” “Cococa Butter Kisses,” and “Favorite Song.”If you’re planning on catching Chance the Rapper soon, brush up on those free mixtapes, he has a diehard fan base that will be up front and center for the show, you don’t want to be left alone in the dark not knowing any of the lyrics, hooks, or beats.

Chance the rapper is arguably the most unique voice in the world of hip hop today. We live in a time when rap is one of the most predominate genres in chart music. However Chance with just pure talent and virtually no commercial backing has become one of the biggest mc’s on the block. Starting with his self-produced 2011 debut ’10 Day’ it was clear that he was a voice to be heard. This was followed by his critically and commercial successful free mixtape masterpiece ‘Acid Rap’ which launched in 2013 and is still touring. As a live musician, Chance literally blew me away with sheer mad energy opening with ‘Everybody’s Something’ and several other tracks before even introducing himself. With a live backing band his live shows are more reminiscent of a rock concert and his crowd involvement makes him as much of a powerful frontman as a rapper. Song highlights included ‘Pusha Man’, ‘Cocoa Butter Kisses’, ‘Braincells’, ‘Paranoia’, ‘Juice’ and a beautiful cover of Ziggy Marely’s ‘Believe in Yourself’. To conclude the night he proclaimed his love to us, we love you too Chance and you will be welcomed back in London with open arms.

I don't normally go to many Rap shows but when I heard chance was coming to London I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Chance certainly didn't let the crowd down. He had so much energy and was visibly happy to be on that stage. This attitude always has a great effect on the crowd. It was one of the best crowd atmospheres I have seen in a while. Crowds normally take a few songs to get warmed up but not tonight. Right from the first song chance had the crowd in the palm of his hand singing along. He appeared to change the setlist to keep the crowd involved and despite the sweaty July heat he managed to keep the crowd singing, shouting and jumping along right until the very end.

Second time around, already saw them on this tour and was still great. Mostly stuff from Coloring Book, I would love to get more from SURF and Acid Rap because this group (The Social Experiment) goes a long way back and have done amazing things.

I personally love the fact that it's live music, trumpet, drums, keys, vocals. I don't see that a lot in Hip-Hop and I think it makes a huge difference.

I sat in the bowl, pretty far from the stage but heard great, the venue is pretty good overall.

Support Chance! He's still passes out music, this is how he earns his living. They deserve it.

I can honestly say that this was the greatest night of my life. He gave such an amazing performance and it was so heartfelt. He sang all the songs we wanted to hear and I was not disappointed at all. He gave off so much energy and the stage looked amazing. I wish I could go again and definitely will be looking for his concerts if he comes back to Oakland. He is such an amazing performer and you can tell he just loves to do it. He brought based god and kehlani with him onstage as a surprise and it was insane! 10/10 would go again for sure.

Terrible show. I absolutely love Chance, but this was basically a BBC Live Extra showcase of lesser-known England DJs with Chance playing 2 minutes sections of some of his hits from Colouring Book and then finishing after maybe 25 mins. The crowd started leaving halfway through his set as he was the final act, and you could tell he didn't really care to be there. I was super amped to see Chance but this was a terrible show. He rapped perhaps 1/3 of the lyrics and then did a couple shout out to the crowd then left. Bad job BBC Live extra!

Fantastic. The dj opening act had the crowd hype. Hell he even played adele and the crowd was singing all the words in perfect unison with their cellphone lights on. Then of course chance was amazing. great visuals and even had fireworks and streamers and pyro. He did alot of his new stuff but a few of his fan favorites like cocoa butter kisses and this my jam. Of his new stuff he did the songs that speak to my heart like blessings and all we got which was real live. all in all it was a fantastic show

I've seen Chance with the Social Experiment twice now and both shows were amazing. Chance has a way of really connecting with his audience. You can tell special care is taken to make a dynamic, inspiring and entertaining show. You can also see the growth in performance quality over time. If you're a Chance/SoX fan make sure you get out to one of their shows. Definitely worth it! Not to mention their opening acts are usually pretty dope. Big shout out to D.R.A.M for his performance in Detroit!

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Chance the Rapper Sets Extensive North American Tour: See the Dates

Chance the Rapper has announced an extensive North American tour kicking off on Sept. 14 in San Francisco.

By Taylor Mims

Taylor Mims

Chance the Rapper has announced an extensive North American tour kicking off on Sept. 14 in San Francisco. The Chicago-born artist will hit 35 cities across the U.S. and Canada through Nov. 10 when he closes out scheduled dates at Miami Beach Pop in Florida.

The tour will be in support of Chance’s highly anticipated debut album The Big Day , which was released on Friday (July 26). The Big Day tour will hit major markets including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York, Nashville, Austin, Toronto and a Sept. 28 stop in his hometown of Chicago at the United Center.

Peppered throughout the tour, Chance will also make appearances at festivals including Life is Beautiful and iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas.

Full Credits For Chance The Rapper's 'The Big Day' Album: Nicki Minaj, Shawn Mendes, Megan Thee…

Prior to the release of The Big Day , Chance placed his trilogy of mixtapes on streaming services. The three mixtapes of 10 Day , Acid Rap and 2016’s Coloring Book launched the rapper into stardom before ever releasing a studio album.

The Big Day was inspired by the various emotions the rapper felt on his wedding day. The 22-track album clocks in at 77 minutes with guest appearances from Nicki Minaj , Shawn Mendes and Megan Thee Stallion.

Chance The Rapper Looks Back During 'The Big Day' Album Release Party: Recap

Tickets for The Big Day tour go on sale to the general public beginning this Friday (Aug. 2) at 10am local time. Check out a full list of dates below.

on sale this Friday @ https://t.co/8rOIFuczrj pic.twitter.com/w3NCldMVJH — The Big Day out now (@chancetherapper) July 29, 2019

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Chance the Rapper Plots North American Tour

By Ryan Reed

Chance the Rapper will promote his recently issued debut LP, The Big Day , on a massive North American tour this fall. The 35-date trek launches Saturday September 14th in San Francisco, California and wraps November 10th at the Miami Beach Pop Fest alongside Daddy Yankee and the Raconteurs.

Tickets go on sale to the general public Friday, August 2nd at 10 a.m. local time via the rapper’s website . A Citi card pre-sale runs Monday, July 29th at 1 p.m. ET through Thursday, August 1st at 10 p.m. local time.

While The Big Day marks Chance the Rapper’s first full-length album, it’s far from his debut studio project. The all-star record — which features contributions from John Legend, Ben Gibbard, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, Shawn Mendes, Randy Newman and Nicki Minaj, among others — follows a handful of acclaimed mixtapes, including 2016’s Grammy-winning Coloring Book .

In a mid-July Tonight Show spot, Chance revealed that he served as a “nostalgia consultant” — at the request of the film’s co-star Donald Glover — on the new Lion King remake .

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“He contacted me while they were working on it and was like ‘Hey, I told Jon Favreau, the director, that you were a huge fan and he wants you to come in as a nostalgia consultant to tell him what Nineties kids like about  The Lion King ,'” Chance told Jimmy Fallon. “So that’s what I did.” He added, “It did get me another gig. I did a little bit of slight vocal work on the animated film. You won’t know it’s me. It’s very weird. I do, like, a lot of the background noises. In very small parts, like if you see an antelope grazing or something.”

Chance the Rapper Tour

September 14 – San Francisco, CA @ Chase Center September 16 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Forum September 18 – San Diego, CA @ Pechanga Arena September 20 – Las Vegas, NV @ Life is Beautiful September 21 – Las Vegas, NV @ iHeartRadio Music Festival September 22 – Glendale, AZ @ Gila River Arena September 24 – Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center September 26 – Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center September 28 – Chicago, IL @ United Center October 2 – Newark, NJ @ Prudential Center October 3 – Boston, MA @ TD Garden| October 4 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center October 6 – Pittsburgh, PA @ PPG Paints Arena October 8 – New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden October 11 – Washington, DC @ Capital One Arena October 12 – Charlotte, NC @ Spectrum Center October 14 – Tampa, FL @ Amalie Arena October 15 – Atlanta, GA @ State Farm Arena October 17 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena October 18 – Louisville, KY @ KFC Yum! Center October 20 – St. Louis, MO @ Enterprise Center October 22 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center October 23 – Houston, TX @ Toyota Center October 24 – Austin, TX @ Frank Erwin Center October 26 – Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center October 27 – Omaha, NE @ CHI Health Center October 29 – St. Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center October 30 – Milwaukee, WI @ Fiserv Forum November 1 – Detroit, MI @ Little Caesars Arena November 2 – Cleveland, OH @ Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse November 4 – Toronto, ON @ Scotiabank Arena November 5 – Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre November 7 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre November 8 – Buffalo, NY @ KeyBank Center November 10 – Miami, FL @ Miami Beach Pop

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Chance the Rapper’s Tour Kicks Off – “Be Encouraged”

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Chance the Rapper kicked off his 43-date Be Encouraged  Spring tour in San Diego, California last month and continues his streak as America’s most-loved MC.

Recently playing a sold out show at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater, Chance shows no signs of slowing down, despite his recent European show cancellations.

For the second time this year, the artist announced that his upcoming European tour dates were cancelled, citing scheduling conflicts that are “beyond his control” and releasing the following statement : “It is with regret that Chance the Rapper has to cancel his upcoming performance at Way Out West and his European festival tour in August. This is due to scheduling conflicts beyond his control. Chance sends his apologies to his fans and looks forward to returning to Europe soon.”

thank YOU GUYS for everything. tour goes on sale at https://t.co/m5rYnxicio at 7pm ET pic.twitter.com/9PVAdLs8Vt — Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) February 14, 2017

But fear not! The Chicago native is still set to play the remainder of his North American Spring Tour dates throughout the United States until the end of June, in which the tour ends in Dover, Delaware. Additionally, Chance will headline 14 different festivals this summer, including the popular Texas-based music festival Austin City Limits.

Here’s Chano’s setlist from his first stop in San Diego:

When he’s not on the road serving up some Acid Rap to his millions of fans, the rapper keeps busy by managing a retail line as well as leading initiatives for social, economic and political progress.

Chance regularly donates to schools, leads marches to the voting booths, hosts free “Open Mike” nights for teens in Chicago, and so much more—this is just the tip of the iceberg for the Chi-town hero.

Check out this clip of Chano performing one of our favorite songs live in Sacramento:

Chance recently celebrated the 4 year anniversary of ‘Acid Rap’, his second official mixtape which he gives credit to “changing his life.” He expressed his gratitude on his socials this week, “Thank you to all the artists and producers that made this thing a possibility, I’m forever grateful.”

To stay up to date on Chance the Rapper and his  Be Encouraged  Tour, visit Ticketmaster and setlist.fm .

setlist.fm is a free wiki service to collect and share setlists — the list of the songs a band or artist actually played during a concert. Anyone who likes to share their knowledge about setlists is welcome to create an account to add and edit setlists—contribute to our ever-growing collection of nearly 3 million! Follow @setlistfm on Twitter. setlist.fm is a division of Live Nation Entertainment.

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Chance The Rapper Explains Why Going On Tour With Macklemore Was A Challenge

C hance The Rapper recently announced special Acid Rap shows in his hometown of Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles to commemorate the project’s 10-year anniversary.

Apple Music 1’s Ebro Darden recently spoke to Chance about his groundbreaking mixtape. The Voice coach revealed the most difficult issue he had to deal with during that time period around 2013.

“The toughest challenge I ever experienced was [when] I went on tour with Macklemore,” Chance said. “Macklemore is an amazing, amazing person and helped me out tremendously as well. But his shows, it was in Europe and it was, I think 38 dates, all 20,000 capacity rooms, all like off markets too, like Poland and Dusseldorf.”

Chance continued, “These people didn’t speak English at all. And not only did they not speak English, he sold out all these shows before I was announced on the ticket. So it’s really bad when you go to a show and there’s an opener that you don’t want to see. It’s way worse when it’s a surprise opener that you don’t want to see. That’s speaking a different language and Black, a lot of negatives on top of each other for the Swedish crowds.”

Macklemore became an international star in the early 2010s. His musical output with producer Ryan Lewis included “Can’t Hold Us” featuring Ray Dalton and “Thrift Shop” featuring Wanz. Both records peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and earned diamond certification from the RIAA.

Many Hip-Hop fans view Chance The Rapper’s Acid Rap as the midwesterner’s breakout mixtape. That 2013 effort features appearances by BJ the Chicago Kid, Vic Mensa, Twista, Noname, Saba, Childish Gambino, Action Bronson, Ab-Soul and more.

Following Acid Rap , Chance dropped Coloring Book in 2016. The 57-minute mixtape was the first streaming-only project to win a Grammy Award when it took home the Best Rap Album trophy at the 2017 ceremony.

The Big Day album arrived in July 2019 to lukewarm reviews. Chance The Rapper has been working on his upcoming Star Line Gallery studio album. He previously referred to Star Line Gallery as one of his “proudest projects in terms of writing and artistic vision.”

The post Chance The Rapper Explains Why Going On Tour With Macklemore Was A Challenge first appeared on AllHipHop

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Chance the Rapper Will Always Be Proud of Acid Rap

In 2013, as new albums from Jay-Z, Drake, and Kanye topped the charts, a small mixtape you couldn’t even buy on iTunes became one of the year’s most talked about releases. Chance the Rapper ’s Acid Rap felt and sounded different from everything else on the market: An exuberant, introspective collection of rap songs drenched in soul, jazz, and gospel influences. Though much of the subject matter skewed serious, the Chicago native’s playfulness shined through: His grizzly, charming sing-song delivery; his scattered yells of “AHHH!” over a honky-tonk piano in “Juice,” that school-house taunt refrain on “Nana.” Listening to Acid Rap felt like cutting class with your best friend, and with features from the likes of Vic Mensa, Twista, Childish Gambino, and Action Bronson, it turned Chance the Rapper into the biggest indie rapper in America.

Ten years later, much has changed for Chance, hip-hop, and America at large. The 30-year-old rapper, who is currently embarking on a mini-tour honoring Acid Rap ’s anniversary, admits rap doesn’t sound nearly as fun as it used to. “I think if I had to blame it on something, I would just say times is hard,” he told me for a recent episode of Into It . But Acid Rap still remains a classic, and Chance is excited about where rap is headed as well as the legacy of his breakthrough mixtape and the days before he became a star. “Right after Acid Rap dropped, I was just running around trying to do small shows or people’s little local radio stations,” he recalls. “Whatever I could do to make it get heard.” Clearly, it worked.

Listen to the full interview from Into It below or read on for an excerpt of our conversation.

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Where was Chance ten years ago when Acid Rap was released? What did your life look like?  I mean, I didn’t have money, but I also didn’t have kids. I was living at my parents’ house and just trying to make this dream work. This was my second mixtape under the moniker Chance the Rapper. And I had dropped a mixtape the year before this called 10 Day . That was all about me getting suspended from high school and that landed me on a national tour with Donald Glover as an opener. Now, nobody in the crowd knew who I was. I think the preparation of that tour put me in the right mindset as a performer to really push to make this mixtape heard. And then I got picked up to go on tour with Mac Miller, who was incredibly impactful to my career and to my understanding of the industry. And soon after that I did my first tour, and that was when I first made some money. I know I keep talking about money like it doesn’t matter, but if you asked me about ten years ago—

It mattered. —It mattered a lot.

Acid Rap really captured this youthful exuberance. Not every song was happy, but a lot of it was and there was this energy that crackled.  For me, what was so cool was that it was real underground. Music was still very heavy on the iTunes side. This is before any large-scale streaming service. Around that time I was trying to shop for deals, and it just wasn’t really working out the way that I wanted to. Not that people weren’t trying to sign me, but they wasn’t trying to give me no control. We put together this mixtape with my own money. And the way it spread was just so different. Like, SoundCloud, DatPiff, LiveMixtapes.

I had the DatPiff app on my iPhone just to listen to it. A lot of people have that story. The music felt like it belonged to people. It felt like it was something you had to go outside of your typical iTunes or buying a CD from FYE or Walmart or Best Buy. You had to find it. Somebody had to tell you about it.

When did you know that Acid Rap was blowing up? I did a listening party the day of the release in Chicago where I rapped a couple of the songs but played the mixtape all the way through. And I remember there being a line around two blocks long of people waiting outside. The difference between that listening party and the listening party from my 10 Day mixtape, it was just so different. I went on tour in Europe that same year in 2013. I got two really cool offers. I got brought to do a few dates with Eminem in Ireland.

Eminem in Ireland surrounded by whites. Yeah, I was in Dublin, surrounded by whites, and it was a lot. We did this place called Slane Castle. It was 90,000 people. I went from opening for Mac Miller and Donald Glover for 2,500-cap rooms in America where I was kind of still struggling, to going to foreign countries with Eminem. Macklemore took me on in the same year. I was playing these sold-out rooms where the entire audience didn’t really know who I was, but in a lot of cases didn’t even speak English. And so, there was a really big barrier between me being recognized for this body of work that I put out that I was seeing going crazy in the States, but being stuck overseas. When I came back, I did my own little mini tour. It started off as 35 dates. It got extended to 50 dates. I did every major and small market around the U.S. and all sold-out shows.

Is that when you knew the album blew up? Yes, that was the longest answer you probably ever got. But, that’s when I felt it.

What’s your favorite song on Acid Rap ? Probably “Acid Rain,” just because it’s the most pure to me. It’s a long single-verse song with no hook that’s just me rapping very transparently and talking about issues that I had with drugs, with some of my closest friends, with the PTSD after I saw my friend get killed. It was a lot of stuff that I would not normally talk about so plainly in my music.

In spite of having these songs that deal with PTSD and drug use, the vibe in Acid Rap is often joyful and fun. When I look at Acid Rap and Coloring Book together and compare it to stuff I hear now, it seems like none of the biggest men in rap are as happy or having as much fun as you were on those albums. I feel like women in rap right now are having fun. But the men seem sad. Is it fair to say that? Yeah, I don’t think they’re happy. What a lot of us experience is melancholy, sadness, displacement, poor relationships, poverty, attacks on your humanity or your masculinity … It’s a lot. I was lucky to make it off being different, but a lot of people make it off of a different angle of the same shit. I feel for niggas. I feel bad. I was just watching a video on Instagram, somebody I know from Chicago and they was like, “Why you think we be in the club feeling some type of way, feeling on edge just because we listening to fucking four hours of murder music about the most despair you ever seen?” Most of us have lost somebody to violence or witnessed some type of violence that scarred us. I don’t think that there’s this master plan from all these niggas that made it out of poverty to continue this fucked-up cycle of producing dark, angry music. I think that the powers that be are a lot of times in control of what direction we’re going.

Can you put your finger on when an actual shift began or what caused it? I think shit is just worse. In terms of public safety, even the weather. The Earth is not as lit as it was in 2013. I think if I had to blame it on something, I would just say times is hard. Everybody is just rapping what they know.

I want to talk a bit about Kanye’s influence on you, especially at the time of Acid Rap . How was his work affecting the way you made that album? I mean, “Good Ass Intro” is a direct sample from the intro to a Kanye West mixtape that came out when I was in high school called the Get Well Soon mixtape. And then, there’s six interpolations towards the end of the record, and those are a lot of interpolations of Kanye-produced beats for Common or Twista or himself. But since ‘04, I’ve been extremely influenced by Ye’s music and his art.

One of the things I think of a lot in your journey in the last ten years since Acid Rap was entering this space where as a Black man in hip-hop who is famous, you got to be a little outspoken on politics. But I’ve heard less from you on that front these days. What has been your philosophy in the last ten years about how much you dabble in those spaces?  I think before, my understanding of politics was through the governing bodies and systems in the United States. I’ve just, I guess kind of become a little, I don’t know.

A little what? Jaded? It’s not even jaded. It’s just like I don’t believe in that shit anymore.

I want to unpack that. Are you saying you don’t believe in electoral politics anymore to effect change, or are you saying something else? I’m also like a whole fucking public figure, so I don’t want to dissuade anybody from whatever it is that they believe is important. And we Black, so it’s a very big deal for us to be able to have the right to vote and to vote without being terrorized.

I think I’ve gotten a better understanding of my identity and placement in the world outside of notoriety or money because in certain spaces, neither one of those matter when somebody can tell that I’m Black. I think Black folks, our natural destiny in the near future is to collectivize and create a more homogenous body. We attach so many other categories to our identity that kind of keep us splintered. I think the only time that we’re allowed to be Black people is when we’re the Black vote. And again, I’m not trying to dissuade anybody from voting or from making their voice heard or any shit like that. I’m very focused on politics. I’m just focused on it in a different space.

This is the most guarded I’ve heard you in this conversation. I told myself I wasn’t even going to talk about shit like that anymore. To tell you that I don’t want to talk about it, I got to give a long explanation.

I feel like when you talk about politics, you are so much more aware of who’s hearing it and how they’re hearing it, and you’re more guarded on that stuff than you are on just the music. Would it be fair to say that? It’s one of the more important things that I could talk about. And there’s a great sense of like, responsibility. I think any time I get a question about it, the first thing that happens is my brain fills up with all the things that I’m mad about. The second thing that happens is I start to think about how I could be misquoted or misunderstood. And then I try and speak on it with both parts of my brain working at the same time, and it comes off as guarded.

I’m not even as worried about a quote being misunderstood. I’m more worried about myself being misunderstood because a quote misdirects everybody. That’s just the game that we play though.

It’s the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. You’re seeing all the press coverage and everyone’s talking about the history and where it came from. But, I’m not seeing as much conversation about homophobia, or sexism, or the glorification of extreme wealth in hip-hop. Do you think our conversation about hip-hop turning 50 is as critical as it should be? That’s a good question. I think it’s always a good time to have a conversation about how we could be better. But I also think that there’s a time and space for celebration. Hip-hop is the dominating culture in terms of fashion, music, and art. It mobilizes all of the capitalist movements, advertising, and marketing. All of these things are using our car to get there. It’s like our car is supposed to have us in the front seat driving, and we’re just still in the back seat arguing.

We do have a huge problem with homophobia. We do have a huge problem with sexism. We do have a huge problem with misogyny, with violence, with over-romanticizing extreme wealth and with a lot of stuff. I hate to sound like I keep flip-flopping, but hip-hop is a reflection of the world. It’s not just a promotional tool. It’s also what people are experiencing and what people grew up understanding. We do need to fix hip-hop to fix the people, but like, that’s what I’m tasked with I think.

Do you think things are getting better at all on any of those fronts? Because, I’m not sure. I’m going to say no. So I started this festival this year called the Black Star Line Festival, and the goal of it is to create free weeklong activations in different Black countries where we can collectivize and share ideas. I think one of the biggest hurdles in this is that a lot of Black countries outside of the U.S. demonize or flat out have made being gay illegal. And so, a big, big thing that I’ve been trying to figure out is how can I collectivize people under this umbrella of Blackness whilst also eliminating some of those other identifiers, like the division of nationality or the division of religion, or most importantly, the division of gender and sexuality. It’s a tough thing because I’m also an outsider. As much as we centralize ourselves as Americans, I’m a foreigner in all these spaces.

We should define this festival more clearly for folks who might not know what’s going on.  I had some conversations with my grandma, and she was just teaching me about the global Black identity. After learning more about Marcus Garvey and his efforts to create Black mobility, I realized that I was never given an opportunity to tour Africa. The only show that I ever did on the continent was in South Africa, which is typically where we go when bigger artists go over there. But, I’ve been in every nook and cranny in Europe. I’ve played Asia, Australia, South America. But, in order for me to get to West Africa, I would have to put on my own concert. In going to Ghana, I realized that the infrastructure and appetite existed for not only me to play a show, but so many other artists. We ended up putting it on this past year with myself, T-Pain, Erykah Badu, Dave Chappelle, Vic Mensa, Tobe Nwigwe, Jeremih. It really put a better understanding and a new identity on all of us where we don’t have to be Black Americans, we don’t have to be Ghanaians, we don’t have to be Africans.

It’s about the collective. Exactly, we got to be brothers and sisters.

That seems so not what the predominant message of American hip-hop is right now. Well, it’s also like every once in a while, you see a new white rapper or Hispanic rapper that pops up and they’re doing a cartoonish, buffoonish interpolation. They’re blowing up, and they have the budget to market and the money to pay for Instagram posts. That creates a snowball effect of more people feeling like that’s what it is to be hip-hop, that’s what it is to be Black. So it’s like we are all in this cycle.

I mean, I listen to a lot of violent music. I like violent music. But, the fact that that’s the most successful music out there is not necessarily by our design. I don’t think that’s Black people’s goal. I live in Chicago. When you asked me about a turning point, Chicago changed everything. There was a wave of music that came out right around the same time as Acid Rap . I hope that this doesn’t come off as giving blame, but the popularization of what we had going on here definitely changed the landscape.

You’re talking about drill music. Yeah. Drill music specifically in Chicago, blowing up the way it did, influenced the entire world. There’s Italian drill music, there’s Chinese drill music.

Listen, there’s a long tale of Chief Keef to be told. Yeah, and that’s what I’m saying and that’s what I don’t want, I can’t blame Keef …

This is the life he lived. He was speaking his truth. Literally. For me, I think that if we are to move towards upper mobility, towards liberation, towards acceptance, towards self-love, it’s going to come through our tool that’s lasted 50 years. Hip-hop didn’t just last because we let it last. The same shit that happened to all the people that Elvis fucked over and the Beach Boys fucked over, that happened in hip-hop. That’s happening today in hip-hop. Hip-hop has survived, and I think it has a divine reason to because it is our tool for Black liberation. It’s just waiting on its right moment.

What I’m hearing is you received a bit of an education since Acid Rap was released, on what hip-hop means, what Blackness means, and how an artist like Chance the Rapper fits into that. What do you think has been the biggest shift in terms of the way you think about hip-hop and Blackness since Acid Rap was released ten years ago? I look at it all as one day. Acid Rap was yesterday to me. I also did a lot of drugs, so I have terrible memory-loss issues. But, I would say the biggest thing that changed me was a phone conversation I had with my grandma. She got my daughter Kensli some kids’ books. One on Juneteenth, which I didn’t think was too heavy, but still a little bit much for a 5-year-old. But also, there was one on the Tulsa race riot. And so, I called her and I was like, “Hey, you know I love you, but what is this? Do you really want me to read these to her?” And she just really taught my ass. What she was saying was that my parents’ generation, people born in the late ‘60s, mid-’60s, had to be taught as a means of survival that racism had died out, that people don’t see color, and the effects of Jim Crow and and the burning of Black cities were all solved so that their kids weren’t running around getting they ass beat in the streets. Because, they had witnessed firsthand how vicious and violent the U.S. as a society would be to those people. She told me that she was very proud of the changes that she was seeing out of my generation and this information age that we live in where people are actually allowed to know the truth. So I think her telling me the importance of imparting that information on my daughter made me realize how important it is that I do that education for myself.

What advice do you wish your grandmother would’ve called you with the day before Acid Rap was released? I remember my grandma said this crazy prayer over me when I was working on Acid Rap where she said, “I prayed to God that everything that you do that is not like Him will fail and crumble.” And I was like, “Did you just put a curse on me? I’m trying to get on. I’m trying to make it.”

That’s some Black grandmother ish right there. Right? I think she would say the same prayer. I’m in the same boat. If I was to talk to myself ten years ago, I would just say, “I’m proud of you. Keep doing everything you’re doing the same way. You’re fearless, you’re dedicated, you’re honest, and do what you’re doing.”

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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This is how Chance the Rapper got the TODAY concert crowd riled up — even at 6:30 a.m.

The Chicago native has long been a respected rapper, but his TODAY Citi Concert Series performance notched another rung in his ladder toward becoming a megastar.

I'm scrolling through Twitter mindlessly when the audience on the TODAY plaza for the Citi Concert Series suddenly bellows out cheers, waving their arms frantically and jumping up and down.

I raise my head up from my phone and scan the audience until my eyes focus in on a burnt orange hat with “3” embroidered on the front. Chance the Rapper has arrived.

I can only see his hat, but I can instantly feel the energy bubbling up in the plaza as he walks to the stage for his sound check — an energy that's palpable, even at 6:30 in the morning.

As the Chicago native and his team rehearse chunks of different songs, fans sing along to the lyrics and hike up their arms on beat.

I see one fan, Kayla Thomas, 27, going all out in her singalong, so I decide to ask her why she showed up to see the rapper, whose second mixtape, “Acid Rap,” turned 10 this year .

“I first discovered him on SoundCloud when he released ‘10 Day’ (in 2012),” she tells me. “Just seeing his career develop has been so exciting, and an opportunity to get to see him have a resurgence and celebrate his 10-year anniversary of ‘Acid Rap’ is really special. It came out when I was in college, and that was like the soundtrack to my freshman year of college.”

I was in high school when I first heard “Acid Rap.” I remember playing “Cocoa Butter Kisses” on repeat to carry me through as afternoons turned into evenings. A couple of years later, in 2017, I saw him in concert at the Essence Festival in New Orleans.

He wasn’t quite as mainstream then as he is now, so people began leaving the stadium as he took the stage and introduced his songs. I remember feeling shocked. Who skips a Chance the Rapper concert?

Since then, Chance has become a symbol for unsigned artists, evidence that you can still enter a competitive music industry known for artists signed to record deals that send them straight to stardom. He’s won Grammys, collaborated with DJ Khaled and other heavyweights in the industry and has served as a coach on NBC’s “The Voice.” He’s also married to Kirsten Corley and is a father to daughters Kensli , 7, and Marli, 3. His second album, “Star Line Gallery,” will be released next year .

Chance's penchant for incorporating these milestones into his music is one of fan Jaylen Stewart’s favorite parts, he tells me on the plaza.

“I like the fact that it’s evolving the type of person that he is,” the 22-year-old says, beaming. “Younger Chance was a little bit more immature but now he’s more of a family man, and it reflects in his music. I really love that about him. ... He’s being true to himself. Some other rappers might do just what’s popular, what’s trendy. But he just reflected what was going on in his life.”

Laura Roach and her daughter Heather Rudisell are as riled up as Thomas is during the TODAY concert. They tell me “The Voice” introduced them to the “No Problem” artist, who became a coach during Season 23.

“The TODAY show only has the best people here performing,” Rudisell, 46, says of why they're attending the concert. “And we wanted to come down and check it out. ... I like his personality. He’s just a nice, really nice guy. Seems like a cool guy.”

The rapper takes a selfie during the concert with Ariel Bennett, 23, which caps off a moment in which he dapped her up earlier during sound check because she was so lit.

“It was everything,” she tells me when I ask her about the moment. “I literally love him and I’m so happy we had that moment. We looked into each other’s eyes. We were vibing together. We were here with it.”

As Chance the Rapper performs “Cocoa Butter Kisses,” “Same Drugs,” “No Problem,” “That's Love” and “The Highs and the Lows,” it's as though he becomes one with the audience, captivating us with an electric performance that energizes each and every scream. Fans plead for selfies — and no one leaves early. As the concert comes to an end, my heart feels full to finally have gotten to experience being at a Chance the Rapper concert with people who appreciate him as much as I do.

Randi Richardson is a reporter for NBC News' TODAY.com based in Brooklyn.

After a ‘hectic’ few years, Chance the Rapper finds new life in a 10-year-old mixtape

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There was hardly a better time to be an aspiring rapper coming out of Chicago than 2012.

That year, label scouts began flocking to the city like never before, allured by Chief Keef’s thunderous “Finally Rich” mixtape, along with buzzing music by King Louie and Sasha Go Hard. While drill music ran the city, heading the left-of-center-scene was a squeaky-voiced talent named Chance the Rapper, who’d just turned a suspension from high school into a breakout mixtape, “10 Day.”

“[MTV2’s ‘Sucker Free’] did an episode in Chicago,” Chance recalled, speaking between hits of a vape pen at the Pendry West Hollywood. “Within a week, every label flying their reps to Chicago, trying to find the best drill artist and the best ‘alt’ artist. I, my friends, people I grew up with, anyone who’d started rapping in 2011 or 2012 were taking label meetings. A lot got signed.”

Famously, the man born Chancelor Bennett, now 30, would spurn the labels and go at it as an independent artist. In 2013, he released “Acid Rap,” a mixtape so potent that he proclaimed it would be your “favorite f— album” before the intro track had even finished. Over the ensuing 50 minutes of music, he backed up his claim, delivering soul-piercing wordplay centered on love, death and drugs over gospel-tinged production. The album was met with immediate critical acclaim, appearing on numerous year-end best-of lists; Pitchfork would rank it at No. 84 in its top 200 albums of the 2010s.

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Ten years after its release, Chance will bring the mixtape to the Kia Forum for an arena-size celebration, playing songs from “Acid Rap” along with some recent hits. The show, set for Thursday, will be a wholly Chicago affair — longtime collaborator Vic Mensa will open the night with a throwback performance of his own cult classic “Innanetape,” which turns 10 this month.

“We made ‘Innanetape’ and ‘Acid Rap’ to inspire ourselves first, and the people after,” Mensa said. “I think Chance and I have grown a lot since then.”

Since “Acid Rap,” Chance has achieved the highest heights and endured some surprising lows. His 2016 mixtape, “Coloring Book,” became the first digital-only project to win a Grammy, for rap album. But in 2019, his wedding-themed album “The Big Day” was largely panned by critics and listeners, and a subsequent tour was first postponed and eventually canceled.

In response, Chance broadened his artistic horizons. Last year, he collaborated with visual artist Mia Lee for an installation at L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art, featuring an emotive painting by Lee themed to his song “Yah Know.” Months later, he helped organize the Black Star Line Festival in Ghana, which drew 50,000 people and featured performances from Chance and Mensa along with Erykah Badu, T-Pain, Sarkodie and more. (A second edition of the festival is set for Jamaica in January.)

“I’ve been saying for a year and a half that we’re in a renaissance, and this will be a time period that people look back on — especially Black folks — that exceeds all our past understandings of community, wealth, education or art,” Chance said. “All of those things are being revolutionized, with a larger goal of reconnection.”

Your music has shifted pretty far from what you were doing on “Acid Rap.” Is it a strange feeling, re-immersing yourself in 2013? It really was when I did the first show in Chicago. That was a deep thing to me, because I don’t really play much “Acid Rap” at my shows now — I’ll play “Cocoa Butter Kisses” or maybe “Everybody’s Something.” So to dig through old footage to create the content for the screens at the shows, and reconnect with all the people from Chicago, it just takes you back.

Each bar reminds me of people I need to hit up; every place that gets mentioned reminds me where I need to get some food. It’s a very aesthetic album. Some people get the acid vibe from it or the juke-gospel-hip-hop vibe, but I think it’s really just about me living in Chicago, putting pressure on myself to make a breakout project.

What song connects with you the most today? “Acid Rain.” I wrote that when I was opening up for artists playing 300-cap rooms. I’m rapping about doing open mics but closing my eyes and seeing arenas. Going back and playing arenas for that project just makes me proud.

Remaining independent throughout your career has been a big part of your image. How strong was the urge to sign in the early days? [Signing] was the main thing on my mind, all the way until late 2012. I thought, “This is the way. I gotta get a deal.”

I was in a label meeting, and they were giving me a weak-ass deal, but I was still down to do it. But instead of having a budget for physical albums, I wanted to do no physical copiesand only put it on iTunes and pocket that money instead. They told me there was no world where people would ever buy music without having it physically.

So if they’d foreseen our digital future, you would have signed? Hell, yeah. I needed the money. But I think I was lucky to be scared and wary enough to not sign.

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A lot of “Acid Rap” touches on addiction and the darker side of drug usage, yet you’ve talked about people bringing you vials of acid at the early shows. Did it ever feel like some people missed the message? I don’t think I was trying to get a specific message across. I feel like the coolest part about “Acid Rap” is it was so inquisitive and questioning things I thought I knew to be true.

I remember, two or three months after it dropped, I got tired of n— offering me acid and telling me about their trips every time I met them. But I couldn’t control it, because the project was out. It taught me that these projects are photographs of who we are in a moment but they last forever, and they shape a lot of people.

Did that lesson change how you made music? I really learned that lesson around the time I had my first child in 2015. I had moved out to L.A. and had a great time, but I wasn’t very productive. But when I had a kid and needed money, I went into a different mode. So during the creation of “Coloring Book,” I went through the process of “this baby’s really finna come and I need to tour and sing these songs proudly.” My kid’s going to grow up, and this is going to be a picture of my youth, of who I was before I was super-grown dad.

What was life like for you when you made “The Big Day?” It was hectic. I got married during that time, I had my second kid during that time. There was a whole bunch of s— going on in Chicago, between the mayoral campaign and Kanye coming back, everything. I remember crossing new thresholds in my life that were coming to me as an adult but still being in my youth at 26.

That album got some pretty harsh reviews, especially compared to your previous projects . How did that affect you? When I dropped “Acid Rap,” I got a lot of negative mentions at first, because [“10 Day”] was all about school. And then with “Coloring Book,” it was people mad that I was on some churchy s—. A new record is always a little bit jarring.

But when “The Big Day” dropped, [the reaction] definitely affected me. Like, “damn, this many people are talking about me, and it’s negative, all over the internet?”

I remember there was an initial reaction outside of my core fan base that I was noticing. It was way more of a Twitter conversation than I was used to. But it helped me understand, after the first week or two, that I had to stay outside. Views, mentions, comments all are important, but if you sit and read all of those and make them the measurement of the love versus hate that you had for something, you end up forgetting why you made it in the first place.

Looking back, would you have done anything differently? I think I’d do everything the same. My life isn’t easy at all, but it’s very eventful, and when things happen, they tend to work out in the best way for me.

Last year, you threw the Black Star Line Festival. What inspired that move? [In January 2022], I went to Ghana for the first time to visit Vic; he’d been staying out there. He had to make a bunch of moves around the continent, so he left me in the care of these amazing artists. I got shown the city of Accra by some of the renaissance artists of the 2020s. We really created community, and by the end of the trip, me and Vic were talking about doing a large initiative to reconnect Black folks in all the different Black countries. And we put together not just this concert, for 50,000 Black folks from around the world with top-tier artists from around the world, but did a whole week of events, with panels, Dave Chappelle speaking at the university, and all these different spaces for us to have intelligent discourse about what we want, what we need and what we can give each other. It reminded me of the Pan-African Festival of Algiers from the ’60s.

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing over hip-hop not having a No. 1 song or album for the majority of the year. What do you say to people who claim that hip-hop has peaked, that it’s falling off? I don’t believe that. Hip-hop isn’t dying when you have every single legend being platformed this year. You’ve got Chance the Rapper doing arenas for a 10-year-old mixtape, you got 50 Cent doing arena tours for a 20-year-old album. I think hip-hop is not only here to stay but it’s here to change things.

Are rap’s leaders doing enough to make that happen? I’ve been seeing a lot of hip-hop legends doing a lot of work. A lot of investing, supporting other artists, so that they don’t have to grow old and die in obscurity or without the honors they deserve. I think all we need is time and to re-emphasize the collective. And I think we’re getting closer to that.

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Kenan Draughorne is a reporter at the Los Angeles Times and was a member of the 2021-22 Los Angeles Times Fellowship class. When he’s not writing a story, you can find him skating across Dockweiler Beach, playing the drums or furiously updating his Spotify playlists.

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Chance The Rapper Is Going on an Arena Tour

Chance The Rapper stays winning. After being nominated for seven Grammy awards, Chance is now set to embark on a 40-city arena tour.

Today (Feb. 2), Billboard published an in-depth interview with Chance's manager, Pat Corcoran. The article also features quotes from Chano's agent, Cara Lewis, who broke the news about the upcoming arena tour.

“Pat lives and breathes Chance, and is relentless when it comes to long-term goals," Lewis says. "Our first date paid 500 dollars. Now Chance is headlining all the major festivals and will embark on a 40-city arena tour.”

There's no word yet on which cities will be included, but this is definitely an exciting piece of news. Throughout the article, Pat the Manager also discusses how he first found out about Chance's Grammy nominations . “I texted Chance, ‘OMG six!’ And he goes, ‘Seven,’” Corcoran says. “I had no idea. I was so nervous that we were going to be overlooked. I just don’t know how those types of things work.”

Corcoran also talks about his thought process when he first signed on to manage Chance full-time. Reportedly, Corcoran told a friend at the time, “I’m going to work for Chance until we’re headlining festivals and winning Grammys - or until I get fired.” Looks like Pat the Manager made the right decision.

Chance's meteoric rise in the rap game is well-documented. Now, the 23-year-old Chicago MC is taking his career to new heights with the announcement of an arena tour. Early fans of the Save Money rapper understand how far he's come since performing at his high school's talent shows.

In other Chance-related news, it was announced today (Feb. 2) that the Coloring Book artist is also slated to perform at the 2017 Grammys on Feb. 12.

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Things to do | why did chance the rapper cancel his ‘big tour’ here’s what he says — and what industry experts say..

Three months after postponing most of the dates on his “Big Tour,” Chance the Rapper announced on Sunday that he was canceling the outing altogether , bookending a rough professional period for the artist.

In an Instagram post, the rapper blamed the cancellation on a desire to be with his family. “Hey guys I’ve decided to cancel the Big Tour,” he wrote. “I know it sucks and its been a lot of back and forth with reschedules and rerouting, but it’s for the best. I’m gonna take this time to be with family, make some new music and develop my best show to date.”

It was an on-brand excuse: Chance married his longtime girlfriend Kirsten Corley, who recently gave birth to their second child, in a ceremony earlier this year, and his latest album, “The Big Day,” was a mostly fuzzy ode to domesticity. The rapper even joked about the canceled tour when he subbed for James Corden on “The Late Late Show.”

But in the music industry, it’s an article of faith that tours are almost never cancelled for any reason other than low ticket sales. “One of two things is happening,” says George Howard, a professor of Music Business/Management at Berklee College of Music and a former record label president. “Either he genuinely needs to spend time with the family, and anybody who is a parent knows that’s a very real thing, or ticket sales (aren’t great). When ticket sales are going great, you find a way to take the family on the road, and when they’re not, family can be a convenient excuse.”

Though precise information on ticket sales is hard to come by (and Chance’s manager, booking agent, and representatives from a half-dozen affected venues did not respond to requests for comment), there were early indications that things were not going well. Citing family issues, Chance announced the initial postponement of the “Big Tour” five days before its mid-September kickoff, though he did play one of two scheduled United Center dates on Sept. 28th. A second, originally set for the next night, was never rebooked.

After the initial postponement, new opening acts (Lil Yachty and Chance’s brother Taylor Bennett) were announced, often a sign that sales need goosing, and 2-for-1 tickets were even offered in November during an unusual Cyber Monday promotion. “If he had to cancel the tour, it’s likely because the concert promoters were facing a serious loss,” says Billboard’s Senior Director for Touring and Live, Dave Brooks, who stresses that no one but those closest to the rapper knows the real reason for the tour’s cancellation. “He tried to buy himself some time (with the postponement). When a tour is at an inflection point where the sales are not good, they can either push through and try to break even, or it’s so bad they cancel.”

The tour had focused mostly on arenas, an idea that didn’t initially seem unreasonable. When Chance toured arenas in 2017 in support of his Grammy-winning mixtape “Coloring Book,” many dates sold out. But arena tours generally favor legacy artists with extensive back catalogs from which they can draw onstage, or newer acts with current smashes.

Chance considers “The Big Day” his first official album, and though it debuted on the Billboard chart at No. 2, it has not proved enduringly popular. Fans and critics who usually praised Chance’s mild Every Guyness, his almost unrelenting positivity, now saw him as musically unadventurous and treacly. “There’s very little nuance in talking about the strains of marriage, and raising a kid with somebody,” says Heather Mack, who co-hosts “Make It Stop: A Bad Music Podcast,” which featured “The Big Day” in a September episode. “He really doesn’t wrestle with any of those themes. It’s all very surface level, and very corny.”

Online reaction to the news tour’s cancellation has been mixed, with many fans praising Chance’s emphasis on family. Others weren’t so understanding. “You just lost a fan,” wrote @toocoolclin_.”I hope you happy cause I’m crying and this ain’t fair … “

In the social media age, tour cancellation announcements are increasingly tricky things to navigate. When Justin Bieber canceled dates on his 2017 “Purpose” tour, his marked indifference to online fan suffering (“I’m sorry for anyone who feels, like, disappointed or betrayed…. have a blessed day”) extended the news cycle for days.

A successful cancellation can engender goodwill at a time when artists most need it. In a weirdly delightful Instagram video in October, singer T-Pain broke the news of his own tour’s demise. Blaming slow ticket sales and his own lack of attention to detail, he broke down the mechanics of his aborted run. “Most artists lie,” he explained. “Whenever concerts get cancelled or tours get cancelled, it’s for low ticket sales, it ain’t about whatever…reason they say.”

Chance is still scheduled to perform at the Something in the Water festival in Virginia Beach, Va. in April. “I promise to come back much stronger and better in 2020 and hope to see some of you guys there,” he wrote on Instagram.

“I don’t think it’s the end for him,” says Brooks. The short term costs of the tour’s cancellation might be at least partly borne by the promoter, depending upon how Chance’s deal was structured, but the bad feelings engendered by the repeated cancellations and postponements might pose a longer term danger to his brand. “If I were representing him, I would quickly move to start playing some free shows in areas where he has a whole lot of support,” says Howard. “He needs to go out and remind people what made him special.” A small venue tour, oversold, might help restore some of Chance’s luster. “He needs to be careful, because you can just disappear these days.”

Allison Stewart is a freelance writer.

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Twitter @chitribent

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Chance the Rapper Cancels Tour: 'I Promise to Come Back Much Stronger and Better'

In September, Chance announced the postponement of his tour due to paternity leave following the birth of his second daughter Marli

Chance the Rapper will not be going on tour.

The rapper, 26, made the announcement on social media Sunday, sharing a lengthy message and citing family commitments.

“I’ve decided to cancel the Big Tour. I know it sucks and its been a lot of back and forth with reschedules and rerouting, but it’s for the best,” the father of two said. “I’m gonna take this time to be with family, make some new music and develop my best show to date.”

The three-time Grammy winner apologized for the unexpected cancellation. “I’m deeply sorry to anyone with a ticket who has supported me this past decade by coming to a show and rocking out with me and I feel even worse for anyone who was planning on making this their first Chance concert,” he wrote.

“Thank you all for an amazing year, and a huge thanks to my team and family for being so strong through this whole year. I promise to come back much stronger and better in 2020 and hope to see some of you guys there. I truly love you and God bless,” he concluded his post.

The cancellation comes after the Rhythm + Flow judge performed on Saturday at the sold-out Rolling Loud Festival at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles.

In September, following the birth of his second daughter Marli, Chance announced the postponement of his tour due to paternity leave . The hitmaker, who is also dad to 4-year-old daughter Kensli, had chosen to delay his concerts just days ahead of its kickoff in San Francisco on Sept. 14.

“I’ve decided to push back my tour. This year has been one of the greatest of my life; Marriage, new baby, first album etc,” he said, referencing his wedding to wife Kirsten in March. “But with it being so eventful it has also been very strenuous having to divide my time and energy between family and work. When Kensli was born, I went on tour 2 weeks later and missed some of the most important milestones in her life, but more importantly I was absent when her mother needed me the most.”

“At this point as a husband and father of two, I realize that I can’t make that mistake again. I need to be as helpful and available as possible to my wife in these early months of raising Kensli and Marli,” he said. “I apologize because I know how many people were counting on seeing me soon, but I hope you’ll understand and forgive me in time.”

The tour was scheduled to begin on Jan. 15, 2020, in San Diego, California.

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Don’t Call It a Comeback: Rap is Rebounding in 2024

After a relative lack of commercial success in 2023, hip-hop is surging back on the charts in the first quarter of 2024.

There was a lot of talk over the last two years about hip-hop's decline , with many people predicting the genre’s downfall. Well, they were wrong, because just a few months into 2024, it looks like rap is getting back on course—commercially and critically. In 2023, it took seven months for a rap album, Lil Uzi Vert’s Pink Tape, to top the Billboard Top 200. By the end of the year, only four rap albums hit No. 1, compared to 12 in 2022. Late last year, there were open discussions about the declining health of the genre as veteran artists like Juicy J claimed that rap music was “down 40%.” In reality, the genre’s market share fell from 27.64% midway through 2022 to 25.92% halfway through 2023, but the concerns were valid. Hip-hop was in the midst of a decline after years of growth.

Fortunately, it looks like the naysayers were wrong because the genre is rebounding in 2024. We’re only three full months into the year, and there have already been three No. 1 rap albums; 21 Savage’s American Dream , Ye and Ty Dolla Sign’s Vultures , and Future and Metro Boomin’s We Don’t Trust You . Future and Metro’s We Still Don’t Trust You is expected to top next week’s chart as well. For comparison, there were zero No. 1 rap albums by April 2023. It wasn’t just albums. No rap songs topped the Billboard Hot 100 until September, when Doja Cat’s “Paint The Town Red” snapped a dry spell that had lasted for over a year. In 2024, it took less than two weeks for Jack Harlow’s “Lovin’ On Me” to become hip-hop’s first chart-topper. This was soon followed by No. 1 songs from Megan Thee Stallion (“Hiss”); Ye, Ty Dolla Sign, Rich the Kid, and Playboi Carti (“Carnival”); and Future, Metro Boomin, and Kendrick Lamar (“Like That”), the latter of which has now been sitting at No. 1 for three weeks straight. Hip-hop already has as many No. 1 songs in 2024 as it did all of 2023.

{ "id": 136648543 } The mere idea of the biggest rappers battling through bars already tops any of the blockbuster rap moments of 2023.

Looking at the charts through a more granular lens, in the first week of April last year, there were 18 rap entries on the Billboard Hot 100. There were 38 rap entries in the first week of April this year. There were 27 rap album entries on the Billboard Hot 200 this time last year compared to 25 today, however, a majority of the rap projects that had entries last year were older albums like Graduation, Take Care, Views, and Igor that never lost their position. In general, when looking at this year's Hot 200 rap entries, there is more new music compared to the year prior, with albums like We Don’t Trust You and 2093 holding high chart placements.  Of course, numbers aren’t everything. There were a lot of factors that hurt hip-hop’s morale in 2023. The YSL RICO case dominated the news cycle as Young Thug was locked up and Gunna faced “snitch” allegations, deflating the energy in Atlanta. Some of the genre’s biggest stars weren’t happy about the creative direction things were going, either, like Lil Yachty who criticized the lack of originality in rap, saying that “hip-hop is in a terrible place” in 2023. Rap albums that people expected to have generated blockbuster moments were also falling flat, like Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz’s Welcome 2 Collegrove and Meek Mill and Rick Ross’ Too Good To Be True. A-list stars weren’t delivering the excitement we were accustomed to, and it left fans disappointed.  Controversy still sells. Ye has been canceled and forgiven countless times, and despite some outrageous bars on “Carnival,” (“Now I'm Ye-Kelly, bitch, now, I'm Bill Cosby, bitch/Now, I'm Puff Daddy rich, that's "#MeToo me" rich”?) it still managed to go No. 1. The song is a testament to how galvanizing hip-hop can still be—for better or worse. Meanwhile, diss records like “Hiss” and “Like That” went No. 1. The lyrical war that Kendrick Lamar, Future, Rick Ross, ASAP Rocky, and The Weeknd have waged against Drake is the shot of adrenaline the genre needed—competition is still entertaining. The mere idea of the biggest rappers battling through bars already tops any of the blockbuster rap moments of 2023. You know rap is in a great place when you hear a diss track like “Like That” blasting in the club . Beyond the beefs and No. 1 hits, there has also been a lot of quality singles that have been popping off this year. After a few missteps and people wondering if she’d ever regain her early momentum, GloRilla successfully launched her comeback campaign with her contagious hit “Yeah Glo!” Sexyy Red is maintaining her momentum from last year with tracks like “Get It Sexy,” which has the streets in a chokehold. Ditto for Texas rapper BigXthaPlug , who has quietly been enjoying chart success with “Mmhmm.” 

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It’s not just the hits. ScHoolboy Q dropped an inspired album with Blue Lips, Tierra Whack expanded the boundaries of her world with her cathartic album World Wide Whack, and MIKE and Tony Seltzer’s Pinball left listeners impressed with its high-level lyrics and head-spinning production. All of these elite-yet-different albums came out in the same month this year.  Several emerging rap scenes have started generating a lot of buzz outside of their respective silos. Detroit’s Veeze had the Rap Twitter album of the year with Ganger in 2023, and now his regional influence is beginning to bleed outside of the confines of Michigan, with the artist gaining mainstream attention . Something similar is happening in New York City and the Sexy Drill movement led by Bronx rapper/producer Cash Cobain. Cobain’s “Fisherrr” is already a song of the summer candidate, and he’s made music with Drake and received a co-sign from Travis Scott , while maintaining his unique sound. These are the intangible stats that can only be determined by being outside.

{ "id": 136648572 } The year is still young, though, and some of the biggest acts in the game have yet to really make their move in 2024.

The industry should try to lead the genre into a healthy future by putting more stock into these smaller scenes rather than predicating hip-hop’s success on the major player's success. This would require both listeners and executives to expand their horizons beyond what they're accustomed to hearing and be open to whatever hip-hop chooses to evolve into. The next generation of underground rappers, like YhapoJJ, Wolfacejoeyy, and Bktherula, don’t sound much like the traditional rap that came before them, but they will be the young guard leading rap into unexplored territory, and they’ll need support and encouragement—not judgment, disdain, or industry plant accusations —in order for the genre to keep growing. Hip-hop has rebounded both commercially and culturally this year, but it still hasn’t returned to its peak, however. The only rap album in the last decade to maintain a No. 1 spot for nine weeks straight is Drake’s Views in 2016 (which was No. 1 for 13 weeks total), and the genre has slowly been dropping in market share since the turn of the decade. According to Luminate , hip-hop has remained the leading genre in terms of market share and controlled 28.2% of US consumption of music in 2020, but it declined to 27.7% in 2021, 26.8% in 2022, and now 25.8% in 2023.

The year is still young, though, and some of the biggest acts in the game have yet to really make their move in 2024. On Complex’s 360 with Speedy , Cardi B confirmed that she would be dropping her anticipated sophomore album this year. Elsewhere in the Bronx, the young phenom Ice Spice is preparing to release her debut album, Y2K , a chance to prove she’s a superstar with staying power. Playboi Carti is in the midst of his rollout for MUSIC . Despite the fact there’s a war going on outside no rapper is safe from, J. Cole is still teasing the release of his next album, The Fall Off. Baby Keem might be tapping Kendrick Lamar again to assist him on his upcoming project that he teased in January. Gunna recently announced that his next album, One of Wun, will be arriving this summer alongside his tour.   Hip-hop is in a good place when the biggest acts are dropping music that moves the streets, the smallest scenes are making inspired sounds that's branching out across the country, and fans are willing to hear and experience new shit. When those three things are happening, everything else tends to fall into place. Hip-hop is still a billion dollar industry, and it can withstand temporary dips. So far, it looks like we’re heading in the right direction in 2024.

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Chance the Rapper Says His Birthday Wish is for Young Thug to be Done with ‘Circus of a Trial’

Chance the Rapper had one wish for his 31st birthday: Free Young Thug. Hitting Instagram, Chance shared a message.

“For my birthday I just wish my brother was home with his family,” Chance posted on Instagram. “This circus of a trial has had him in custody for over a year and with all the legal errors, jury misconduct, and conflicts of interest by the state, he deserves to at the very least fight this from home.”

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper)

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Chance the Rapper, Thelonious Stokes unveil new art from ‘Star Line Gallery’ at Expo Chicago

The longtime friends spoke on a panel and presented “the last stair,” an oil painting featured as part of chance the rapper’s upcoming album and visual arts project..

Thelonious Stokes (left) and Chance the Rapper participate in a keynote speech/panel during Expo Chicago at Navy Pier Thursday night.

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Chance the Rapper says he is not surprised by his friend Thelonious Stokes ’ success in the art world, but he didn’t see it coming.

Years before Stokes was a notable oil painter in Italy, he was like a kid brother to the Chicago emcee, going over to his house after school to slap-box, eat cheese sticks and learn how to do the “jerk” dance.

Today, Stokes, 28, is not only a Florence Academy of Art graduate and teacher. He has been a key figure in Chance’s forthcoming album and visual arts project, “Star Line Gallery.” The longtime friends presented a new painting, “The Last Stair,” from the venture and participated in a panel Thursday at Expo Chicago at Navy Pier.

“I’m hyped up because [Stokes] has really taken off in this space,” Chance told a packed room from the stage. “All of the things that I’ve done in the art world and all of the pieces that I’ve worked on for ‘Star Line Gallery’ have been either advised by Thelonious or, at the very least, influenced by what he does.”

The panel also featured Asma Naeem, co-curator of the Baltimore Museum of Art’s exhibition “The Culture: Hip-Hop & Contemporary Art in the 21st Century,” which is now on view in Germany. Moderated by Vanity Fair writer Nate Freeman, the discussion explored hip-hop’s influence on contemporary art; lack of diversity in the art world; and parallels between musicians and visual artists.

• How to see the art, buy the artwork and hear from the artists at this week’s Expo Chicago

Chance also surprised some audience members with free tickets to his concert Saturday night at the Ramova Theatre, which he co-owns. (The show is a benefit for Chicago organization SocialWorks, as well as a celebration for Chance’s 31st birthday.)

Positioned against a wall was “The Last Stair,” Stokes’ oil painting of the Christian nativity scene, featuring Black figures. The work shares its name with a song on Chance’s “Star Line Gallery” album, which will include 16 tracks and 16 corresponding art pieces.

“The Last Stair” by Thelonious Stokes is exhibited during a panel discussion on Thursday night at Expo Chicago at Navy Pier.

“I’m reclaiming the space of the Judeo-Christian representation through my own identity,” said Stokes, who also mentioned he plans to start both a Black-owned fashion house and art academy in Italy. “I just feel so blessed that everybody is able to see this. Hopefully soon, the piece will be installed publicly somewhere and then begin to travel the world.”

An album release date has not been determined for “Star Line Gallery” — named after a shipping line by Marcus Garvey — but Chance has spent the last two years sharing some of the songs and works by the artists, which include Mia Lee and Nikko Washington , of Chicago, and Naïla Opiangah, of Gabon.

• Chance the Rapper unveils new song, artwork collaboration for ‘Child of God’

Chance said he was inspired to share works across the African diaspora after visiting Ghana, where he and Chicago rapper Vic Mensa also hosted the Black Star Line Festival last year.

“It came from meeting artists and finding out all these parallels between underground rappers trying to get some agency and clout — but also retain their independence — with a lot of young artists that were trying to figure out what galleries to be with or what collectors they could trust, or how to get their stuff to be seen,” Chance said.

Like Chance, Asma Naeem is also interested in the relationship between music and visual art. She said she wanted to convey hip-hop’s influence with “The Culture” exhibition, which features Chance’s red overalls created by Chicago designer Sheila Rashid.

Chance the Rapper talks about his upcoming show at the Remova Theatre on Saturday night, during a keynote speech at Expo Chicago on Thursday.

“There is so much connective tissue between what’s happening in hip-hop and what’s happening in contemporary art,” Naeem said. “You cannot separate the two.”

Naeem said many contemporary artists draw on hip-hop themes, including social justice, Black joy and acknowledgment of ancestors.

“We are shattering stereotypes of what fine art should be, of what museum objects should be, of what the canon of artistic excellence should be,” she added. "[And] temporary exhibitions are a little bit of a cop-out for museums. We put up a temporary exhibition featuring Black artistry and Black artistic excellence, but do we actually bring those works into our collection? That is the change that needs to happen.”

Thelonious Stokes participates in an audience Q&A during Expo Chicago at Navy Pier Thursday night.

Chance the Rapper has also seen the exclusion of Black artists firsthand when he, rapper Joey Bada$$ and others visited the Venice Biennale , one of the most prestigious art events in the world, in 2022.

“We found out quickly that they don’t want us in their parties,” Chance said. “We had that in common with a lot of the Black artists that were actually presenting at the festival. Some of the biggest Black artists couldn’t get a credential in a party.”

In response, Chance rented out a local pub and hosted a party for the Black artists, who were from multiple countries.

“I could cry just thinking about it,” he said. “It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. ... It solidified to me the importance of this ‘Star Line’ project and the importance of collaboration and conversation with people that may not be from the same neighborhood that you’re from, but we have a connection.”

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Chance the Rapper Singing A Capella Is So Stunning and Soothing in a Surprise Video

The Voice  Coach previewed a new song in a super authentic way. 

Chance the Rapper just teased new music in the best way.

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Watch  The Voice Mondays and Tuesdays at 8/7c on NBC and next day on Peacock.  

On April 12,  The Voice   Coach shared a preview of a new track to preview his upcoming concert in his hometown of Chicago . In the artsy clip, Chance sits on a stool and snaps his fingers while singing a capella. His voice sounds super raw and soothing, as the acoustics in the room complement his tone perfectly. 

Check out his beautiful, surprise vocals here .

"I'm singing some new songs at the show tmw night at my new venue @ramovachicago . All proceeds to @socialworks_chi ," he wrote in a caption.

It's been a year since Chance last released a new song. The rapper has steadily released singles and features in recent years since his last new solo album  The Big Day  was released in 2019. He also dropped a Christmas album with Jeremih in 2020,  Merry Little Christmas Mama , and in 2023  Acid Rap 's 10th anniversary edition.

Chance the Rapper on coaching  The Voice  Season 25

Currently, Chance the Rapper is killing it as a Coach on Season 25 of  The Voice . In a February interview with  NBC Insider , he explained how his approach is different in comparison to Season 23 when he first joined. 

''Last season I was really intent on judging based on the round, right?" he told us. ‘"Cause it's like, you’re in the moment, this is the performance you gave regardless of how well it went in rehearsal, in green room... but also, that’s not the way that the real industry works." 

RELATED: All About The Voice Coach Chance the Rapper's Kids

He continued, ''There are really big moments, but there are a ton of moments. And if you were really judged and critiqued off of singular moments, then we wouldn’t have careers. We wouldn’t continue doing it. So [I'm] having the grace to recognize the Artists that you really wanna work with and have these moments with and give those platforms to is something that I’ll probably bring into this new season." 

He also talked about his favorite part about being on the coaching team. ''I really love doing the show for a lot of reasons, and I think one of them is just the creative outlet that you get in collaborating with Artists, on re-imagining songs with  The Voice  band, which is one of the greatest bands and always has the greatest players on TV,'' he said. 

"We’re surrounded by great Artists, being with the Coaches is inspiring, and so is the crew. Everybody’s funny! That’s the cool thing is we’re always joking around , we’re always doing some dumb stuff, and it’s like, whether you’re on camera or not on camera, there are great moments that we have,'' he added. 

RELATED: Chance the Rapper's Younger Brother, Taylor Bennett, Is Basically His Twin

When Chance first joined  The Voice  in Season 23, he revealed to  NBC Insider , “I wanted to be a Coach on  The Voice  because I like giving platforms to young Artists — especially people who are already seasoned in their trade and know what they’re doing but just need the right spotlight. I wanted to be a part of the process." 

• Music Performances
• Chance The Rapper

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Chance The Rapper Uses Birthday Wish As Call-To-Action To Free Young Thug

Chance The Rapper and Young Thug actually go way back!

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Chance The Rapper is celebrating his birthday in an unconventional way by using his grand solar return and social media channels as a platform to petition for Young Thug’s prison release.

On Tuesday (April 16), Chance shared a post on Instagram featuring presumably a throwback video of he and Thug calmly chopping it up stamped with the text “Top 2 DOA [Dead or Alive].” In the caption of the post the “No Problems” rapper revealed that his sole wish for his birthday was for Thug to be able to be with his family as the ongoing YSL RICO trial continues.

“For my birthday I just wish my brother was home with his family,” Chance wrote in part.

As Chance continued, he appeared to criticize the trial, which has been plagued by a number of stoppages and misconduct and subsequently added to Thug’s time behind bars.

“This circus of a trial has had him in custody for over a year and with all the legal errors, jury misconduct and conflicts of interest by the state he deserves to at the very least fight this from home,” he wrote.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper)

Over the years, Chance The Rapper and Young Thug have built out a stealthy yet healthy collaborative footprint. Likely the duo’s most notable collaboration arrived on Chance The Rapper’s fan-favorite mixtape, Acid Rap , in the form of the track “Mixtape” featuring Lil Yachty. In 2021, Young Thug added a guest verse on for the Chicago native’s Instagram EP track “Instagram Song 8” and prior to that, they joined forces for the 2017 track “Big B’s.” Thug also notably made a cameo in the official music video for Chance The Rapper’s Grammy-Award winning hit, “No Problem featuring Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz, which included cameos from DJ Khaled and Boosie Badazz, among others.

Chance The Rapper’s appeal for Young Thug’s freedom arrives amid a tumultuous shift in the YSL RICO trial after the full list of 200-plus witnesses was released and it was confirmed Gunna would not be taking the stand against his rap mentor.

Additionally, along with the judge presiding over the trial threatening to schedule court dates on the weekend, a witness, whose identity remains confidential for their safety, accused an investigator identified by his last name of Hamilton of engaging in sexual harassment.

Watch the full post above.

Ashanti Confirms She's Pregnant With Her and Nelly's First Child

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Ashanti  has just confirmed she's pregnant with her and  Nelly 's first child!

Ashanti shared the happy news Wednesday in an Instagram video in which the singer's getting ready for a performance. After one of her handlers asks how much time she needs until she's ready, Ashanti's mom, Tina Douglas, checks in a second time, and that's when Ashanti responds, "I'm gonna need about nine months," prompting Tina to express shock at the pregnancy news.

The baby will be Ashanti's first and Nelly's third child. The "Hot in Herre" rapper is the father of adult children, Chanelle, 29, and Cornell Haynes III, 24, from a previous relationship. Nelly also adopted his sister, Jackie Donahue's, kids -- Shawn and Sydney Thomas -- after she died from leukemia in 2005.

Ashanti, 43, and Nelly, 49, first hinted at their baby news in December in a video that made its way around the internet from Nelly's 11th Black and White Ball. During what appears to be an auction portion of the event, the pair stands onstage while the MC says "seal the deal." Nelly then places his hand on Ashanti's stomach, as she makes a heart over it, before they both laugh and rush off the stage. 

Nelly and Ashanti rekindled their relationship earlier this year. Prior, the pair dated on and off for a decade before calling it quits officially in 2013. 

Last September while at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, the singer walked the pink carpet alone but made sure to bring a part of her relationship with her via a purse featuring a photo of her and Nelly at the VMAs exactly two decades earlier.

"I just thought that his was cool because this picture was taken 20 years ago at the VMAs in 2003," Ashanti told ET at the time. "We were in a great place," she added of her memory from the old photo. 

The following month, the pair went Instagram official , when the "Country Grammar" rapper dedicated a sweet post to his lady on her birthday.

"One time for the birthday girl…. Such a beautiful, an incredible person inside and out and one of the hardest working [woman] I know," Nelly wrote in his caption. " @ashanti  Enjoy your day Ma you look awesome!!!! Happy Birthday Love ya!!!!," he wrote next to a post with a series of pictures featuring him and the "Foolish" singer. 

Ashanti took to the comments to thank her man, writing, "Awwwwww Thanku Big head!!!!!!!!🥰😘 love ya!!!!" 

In September, Nelly confirmed their rekindled romance and shared that their time apart was key to connecting when the time was right.

"I think we both were pretty much doing what we do, but sometimes being separate you understand one another more," he said during an interview with  Love and Hip Hop 's Rasheeda and Kirk Frost. "You be like, 'Yo, let me see exactly what they see.' You know, because we all can be defensive sometimes in our own relationships. We know we wrong but we going to stand on it. But we all a victim to that." 

It's been an eventful year for the "Body on Me" singers, who have shared PDA in Las Vegas and had a sentimental moment as Ashanti walked the red carpet holding a picture of her and Nelly from 20 years ago. 

For more of Nelly and Ashanti's love, click below. 

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