Chance the Rapper Killed His Own Career
On July 26, 2019, Chancelor Bennett, known by his rapper name Chance the Rapper, released his debut studio album The Big Day. Since that day, the rapper’s career has not looked the same. Before we get too deep into why his career so drastically changed, and why I am writing this article in the first place, I need to go into the backstory of Chance’s meteoric rise first.
Chance the Rapper made his first big splash in the underground hip-hop scene with 2013s Acid Rap. Without going too deep into why the album is good, just know it became a bit of a cult classic. Chance the Rapper put his emotions and experiences growing up in south Chicago to music in a way few had ever been able to do before and it struck a chord. In 2016, Chance would release his more mainstream follow up, Coloring Book. This project would feature the likes of T-Pain and Justin Bieber on it, cementing Chance as an artist to really be on the lookout for. Chance did nothing but ascend to the top of everyone’s “next best” list from 2013 to 2017. He collaborated with big and small artists alike, making sure his name stayed relevant and continuing an output of decent to great music and collaborations. This is the hype that went into his third major solo project and first studio album.
Chance the Rapper had built this acclaim and recognition for himself independently. He had not been signed to a label and he had never had his albums distributed or promoted by a major recording studio either. Chance had given a blueprint to every SoundCloud rapper you have ever heard of to be great. While Chance may have been independent, he was by no means alone in his ventures as an artist.
Enter Chance’s former manager Pat Corcoran. People who pay attention to the behind the scenes aspects of the hip-hop world have at least heard of Pat. Chance made the music, wrote the lyrics, sang the songs, but Pat was the driving force behind what allowed Chance to grow organically and make the connections in the music world that he did. Chance is a supremely talented artist and he made his own way in hip-hop, but Pat was seemingly the jetpack on his back that took the whole operation to the stratosphere. That’s why it seemed so weird for Chance to fire his longtime manager back in April of this year.
Well now we have just about as many answers we could hope for, as Pat Corcoran has filed a lawsuit against Chance the Rapper. According to Corcoran, Chance and his team owe Pat roughly three million dollars due to a verbal agreement the pair had made a long time ago. Pat also wants an industry standard termination agreement called a “sunset clause” which would allow Pat to be paid commissions for the next three years before both parties would finally be clean of one another.
The lawsuit itself and the fallout of it are actually utterly uninteresting to me and to most hip-hop fans I would presume. The intrigue of all this comes from the statements that Corcoran has made about the creative process and build up to the release of The Big Day and the firing of Corcoran. The biggest revelations from the lawsuit regard the announcement of the album and the actual record process of the album. The lawsuit states, “Corcoran expressed serious concern with the projected release date Bennett had unilaterally announced for the album.” This statement was in response to Chance announcing in February that the album would be coming out in July. Chance would also be getting married in March. This is not enough time to make a well thought out and executed album unless your singular focus is that album, and even then, unless your name is Kanye West, that is just not enough time. The lawsuit would go on to say:
Instead of acknowledging the numerous distractions and artistic compromises that inevitably resulted from time wasted in the studio, all of which contributed to a lacklustre album evidenced by historically low ticket sales, Bennett ultimately blamed Corcoran for the judgement rendered by his fanbase rather than accept that his own lack of dedication had doomed the project.
The lawsuit obviously has more inflammatory and damaging quotes scattered throughout, but these are the ones worth focusing on for the purposes of this article.
The first of those quotes is easy enough to gain some insight from. Chance has seemingly surrounded himself with people that are supporting his every decision, and the one person advising him against poor decisions is the one person not being listened to. Chance’s manager is very clearly plugged into not just the music world but also Chance’s creative process and its unique requirements. By ignoring that person, Chance is telling him and everyone else he is too big for them and doesn’t need help. The creative process around Chance may not provide the feedback that is normally required to create a great work of music.
This idea is further backed by the second comment. That comment, along with many others about the creative process that went into the album shows Chance threw an album together with little care for actual quality. This idea that Chance’s album lacked in quality is oddly not mirrored by the reviews. In fact, Metacritic has The Big Day listed as a 71/100 overall. This seemingly indicates an above average album. My personal opinion is that it is one of the ten worst releases of 2019 and that it was a waste of an hour and a half of my life. Social media felt very similar. Chance garnered much public backlash for his often very cagey and immature responses to fan criticism, on Twitter mostly. To make matters worse, Chance had to cancel the tour for The Big Day due to tragically poor selling concert tickets, a fact backed by the second quote up above from Corcoran.
Everything about the release of the album was mishandled. Everything post the album’s release was mishandled worse. Chance the Rapper had the world in the palm of his hand. He had number one hits. Chance had won Grammys for an album that never hit store shelves, something never before seen. When the light shone brightest for Chance’s career, he barreled down a muddy hill and laid in the rain while we as fans waited for him to get up and clean off. Instead we have gotten little to no music from Chance since the release of the album and who knows when we will get more. The world continues to turn and Chance continues to get left in the wake of the devastation he himself caused.
Chance the Rapper is not over as an artist. He is an extremely talented hip-hop artist. Chance will be back with music and it may very well be incredible music. Unfortunately the thing Chance may have killed was the superstar career he should have had. I love Chance and his music, but I am still terrified he will never come close to reaching the heights he should have reached post Coloring Book.