Have you ever wanted to jump on a rapper’s bandwagon before any of your friends. Maybe you were mad that you slept on Kendrick Lamar until the first time you heard “Swimming Pools”, or perhaps dismissed Drake as soft when “Best I’ve Ever Had” started to dominate radio airplay throughout the country about 5 years ago. Rest assured, Chance The Rapper gives hip hop fans another chance, no pun intended, to not sleep on what has the potential to be, the next good, maybe great rapper. Chance The Rapper, who first created a buzz among diehard hip hop fans with his first mixtape, 10 DAY, has released his second mixtape, Acid Rap. Standing at a young 20 years old today, Chance released 10 DAY in high school two years ago, while serving a 10- day suspension for ditching classes, ironically.
Acid Rap starts off with an amazing intro that showcases Chance’s superior rhyming and sufficiently provides a preview to the wide range of styles the mixtape features. Next up, my personal favorite track, “Pusha Man/ Paranoia”. The latter of which, “Paranoia”, a track that teams Chance with Nosaj the Thing, has already been placed on the shortlist for one of the songs of the summer by many critics, including Complex magazine. “Paranoia” shows a wide range of motion for Chance, who sings the chorus and raps 3 verses, all delivered with different tones and levels of excitement. Other notable tracks include, “Cocoa Butter Kisses”, “Juice” ,”NaNa”, and “Favorite Song”, which features a noteworthy verse from rapper/ actor, Childish Gambino. The album is predictably littered with drug references, and tales a youth spent having fun on the Southside of Chicago. Chance has an odd grasp of his poise, as Acid Rap sounds more like a fourth studio album from a seasoned rapper, rather than a second mixtape from a rapper fresh out of his teen years and without a record deal. Another initial thought, Chance’s voice and delivery has a strong resemblance to one, Lil Wayne, maybe Lil Wayne if he got a college degree, but you will hear the noticeable similarity. Chance, however, has a unique characteristic that sets him apart, his spoken- word approach, to which he admits is an intentional effort, and one he has studied and practiced in the past. This approach, much like a young Kanye West, makes his flows more understandable and lyrically tangible.
As previously mentioned, Chance does not have a studio album to his credit, and Acid Rap’s release is almost sure to spark a bundle of record companies tripping over themselves to sign Chance, much like Drake and Kendrick Lamar before him with their critically- acclaimed mixtape releases. Both of those rappers had major rap icons to champion them and really segway them into the public eye and mainstream visibility. Kendrick had Dre, and Drake had Lil Wayne, of course. Lets see where this mixtape takes a rising star.
