By Matthew Budkofsky
It may seem hard to believe, but there was a time back in 2016 where Chance the Rapper appeared poised to become the next top dog in the rap game. 2016 was the year of Chance. He dropped his Grammy award winning album ‘Coloring Book’, and made history by becoming the first streaming only album to win a Grammy. As if that wasn’t validation enough, former President Barack Obama included Chance’s hit song ‘Acid Rain’ on his 2016 summer playlist. Chance the Rapper was so popular, he claimed to have earned $6 million off of sales of his signature ‘3’ hat in just one year. In addition to his own projects, Chance continued to churn out classic verses on featured projects. Most notably, his appearance on ‘Ultralight Beam’ in ‘The Life of Pablo’ album where Chance rapped, “I met Kanye West I’m never going to fail”. At the time, the lyric seemed like a big flex however since then it has ultimately turned into more of a punchline.
After ‘Coloring Book’, Chance took a step back from music to focus on spending time with his family. Two and a half years passed without hearing much from Chance other than a few singles, and the buzz around his name from Coloring Book caused many of his supporters to grow impatient waiting for his next big project. On March 9, 2019, Chance married his girlfriend, Kirsten Corley, and the release of his fourth independent project and debut album known as The Big Day followed soon after. The album peaked at number two on the Billboard: 200, making it Chance’s highest-rated project, but the album quickly began to plummet as more fans listened. Criticized for the improvisational sound and style, the 22-song project was forgotten in just a few weeks. It’s safe to say fans were disappointed, as the long-awaited release of the album ultimately flopped, and Chance’s reputation took the biggest blow of his career.
After ‘The Big Day’, Chance disappeared into a period of silence. Unfortunately, some of his most notable public appearances were not the most positive situations. Back in January, a clip emerged of Kanye West yelling at Chance while working on his new album ‘Donda’. In July, Chance teamed up with Starbucks for an ad campaign which featured quite possibly the worst sounding sound bite of all time. It was so bad that Starbucks tried wiping it from the internet, but don’t worry I have the clip for you to watch below.
Over the last couple years, Chance has released a few new singles here and there. Although, it seems almost impossible for him to re-capture the momentum he had garnered in his early rise to fame. It is sad to say, but it appears Chance’s best music is well behind him. We can only hope his hat sales are still kicking in the meantime.