Photo by: Roger Tino Morales
Since dropping Acid Rap in late April as the follow up to 2012’s 10 Day, Chance The Rapper has quickly turned much of the city’s youth into unapologetic junkies.
The squirrely nanas and schizophrenic flow have taken the city and the national underground hip-hop scene by storm over the past year, and Friday at Lollapalooza set the perfect stage for Chance’s tie-dyed Acid raps to shine. First off, I’ll admit I’m an avid user. Having followed Chance for most of the past year and for days at a time at SXSW in Austin, I felt more than prepared as I rode in the car to a noon rehearsal at The Music Garage on the near West Side with “Good Ass Intro” producer Peter CottonTale.
Chance arrived soon after we did. Dressed casually in grey pants cuffed around the ankles and a grey baseball t-shirt with Leaders emblazoned in pink across his chest, he dove into a quick once over of the album, played with a live band made up of former Kids These Days members Macie Stewart and Greg “Stix” Landfair alongside CottonTale. Between bites of McDonald’s Chance sputtered over the quick-footed rhymes and crooned the nasal chorus of “Chain Smoker” as his brother Taylor Bennett, fellow artist NoNameGypsy, and others looked on.
The rehearsal came to an end just over two hours after it began when Chance mentioned a hidden plan to crowd surf through the crowd in an inflatable raft at the end of his set. “I’m gonna grab an oar and get all the way to the back of that bitch.”
