There’s this talk about this Chicago rapper that goes by the name of Chance (“please say The Rapper”), and I won’t lie to you, when I first heard his 10 Day mixtape, I wasn’t having any of it. I just thought it was just some more noise, and he was just another rapper that was just trying to fit into the status quo. Now, when it comes around to Acid Rap, I decided to give him another chance. He’s still new, so why not. Not everyone can be amazing to me right off the bat (See: Danny Brown), so I dove right in.

Right off the bat, Good Ass Intro didn’t stray far from its title. The blend of soul on the vocals, and a production that can bounce all over was definitely better than anything I heard on 10 Day. I think my problem with Chance was his voice, and lyrically, I didn’t think he was anything special. I still don’t think lyrically, he’s all that great, but his flow (blend of Wayne/Childish Gambino/Danny Brown/ASAP) and delivery of how he can orchestrate melodies (very Wyclef-esque) is what I think makes the music better. The emphasis of the first part of Pusha Man continues his personal story from the fact that he blew up from 10 Day, but it’s done so in a way that it’s not irritating. His ad-libs can get incredibly annoying at times, but it all depends on what mood you’re in – although sometimes you just wish he’d shut up in the background. I liked the 2nd verse of the 2nd half of Pusha Man because coming from Chicago, he talks about the lack thereof media coverage in Chicago like they don’t even care (reminds me of the ‘From Rags To Bitches’ parody documentary on The Boondocks; Terra-Belle, Georgia), but the fact remains that, it’s still something that is addressed with Chicago rappers, but no one seems to listen.

There’s a lot of great production on this mixtape, and it’s the main reason why I like it so much. Chance killed the hooks and the sing-song voice works for him. Sometimes not everyone can just flat-out rap, they need to approach their styles different, and for Chance, if he continues with this type of sound, I’m more likely to become a bigger fan of his, in all honesty. Cocoa Butter Kisses had my face screwed the whole time, because : 1. Shout out to amazing beat, and 2. the song overall is just pure and from the heart. I can’t get enough of it, to be honest. Juice was the first song I ever heard from Chance and I said ‘No thanks’, and I’m still warming up to the song, but again, it speaks to the production and flow, but he shows that he has the ability to put together a full song, which is what he’ll need to do more often if he plans on being someone big-time.

One thing that I’m just “whatever” about Chance sometimes; he mumbles a lot, so he becomes inaudible, and he goes in and out of that – it’s like you have to press your headphones together harder against your ears to catch words, but aside from that, it’s pretty clear. I love the fact that BJ The Chicago Kid was used along with other Chicago artists (Saba was one artist that I featured on the Chicago Hip Hop post I did a few months back). The blend of new school beats having their soul & diversity emphasized the type of Chicago sound that we initially became familiarized with Common, Early Lupe & Kanye West, but as each generation changes, they add more elements to make them unique.

On Everybody’s Something, there were a couple of lines that hit me personally, because I understood exactly what he was talking about:

I used to tell hoes I was dark light or off white
But I’d fight if a nigga said that I talk white
And both my parents was black
But they saw it fit that I talk right

Now, I’m nowhere near off-white or dark light, I’m just dark and impervious to light, but the part about being picked on because you speak ‘right’ or you’re well articulated for being black is something that I had to deal with a lot, and I don’t think a lot of people understand just how frustrating it is to not only myself, but to other black people who go through this. We’re allowed to speak like we’ve read a book or many, you know.

A lot of the beats brought me right back to church seeing all of the women in the Church pews with their tambourines and the choir singing while the Pastor blows his Trumpet; so much soul, I live for that. Having industry features with the likes of Childish Gambino, Action Bronson, Ab-Soul, and a Chicago legend, Twista shows that he’s already well-respected among his peers (although I didn’t care for Smoke Again with Ab all that much – actually at all, but it’s growing)

Acid Rain is a great song (probably one of the best, consciously on the mixtape), and a lot of it can attribute to this one bar:

Sometimes the truth don’t rhyme
Sometime the lies get millions of views

Rappers don’t like to keep it real lately, and when they flaunt what’s hot but not what’s real, they get more attention than when a rapper who has concrete messages in their music does. Also, people don’t like to know the truth of what’s going on, because people are oblivious to what’s really staring at them in the face, which is why so many people feed into what’s being shown to them although it could very well (and in most cases is) a blatant lie.

If this is the result of doing Acid before making some music, then I hope it replaces all Molly raps really quick, because this surpassed any and all expectations I had for this. I was just saying the day before this came out that I was hoping that it would be good, because I had no faith in Chance – being straight up. I might (strong might) go back and listen to 10 Day to compare the differences, but it’ll be hard to take Acid Rap off repeat. I encourage everyone to listen to this mixtape (or album, since that’s what he calls it) because it’s truly genuine and something for all to enjoy, especially those people looking for something different for a change. I guess you could say it’s a good thing that I was able to give Chance a second one (let that marinate).

That’s My Word & It STiXX