Chance The Rapper Biography

news-detailsChance the Rapper was born Chancelor Bennett on April 16, 1993. Hailing from West Chatham neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, he considered a career in music throughout his high-school years. He used a ten-day suspension during his senior year to record his debut mixtape, "10 Days", which was uploaded in 2012 and was well received locally.

The mixtape helped Chance make connections with producers such as Chuck Inglish, Kenny Jame$ and Blended Babies. It also grabbed the attention of Forbes magazine, which featured it in the publication's Cheap Tunes column, and Childish Gambino who then asked Chance to join his 2012 tour as opening act.

He began to gain major recognition following the release of his second mixtape, "Acid Rap". Ever since it arrived in April 2013, the project has been downloaded more than 1 million times on Datpiff. Featuring guest appearances from Twista, Vic Mensa, Saba, BJ the Chicago Kid, Action Bronson, Gambino and Ab-Soul, the tape garnered positive reviews from music critics and fans. At Metacritic, it received an average score of 86 based on 21 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim." It was also nominated for Best Mixtape at the 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards and was listed on multiple 50 best albums of 2013 lists, including 26th for Rolling Stone, 12th on Pitchfork's list and 4th by Complex.

In 2015, he released "Surf" which was his joint project with his group, Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment. It was also praised by critics, scoring 86 based on 17 reviews on Metacritic. In 2016, he worked with Kanye West on the veteran rapper's "The Life of Pablo" before dropping his third mixtape "Coloring Book" in May.

The critically-acclaimed mixtape, which was made available as an Apple Music exclusive for two weeks, debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200 with 38,000 equivalent album units. It generated 57.3 million streams in the first week, making it the first release to chart on the Billboard 200 solely from streaming.

On September 15, 2016, Chance kicked off his "Magnificent Coloring World Tour" in San Diego. The extensive tour hit some major countries including Canada, Denmark, Germany and United Kingdom. However, Chance had to cancel three remaining shows of his European leg due to personal reasons.

Chance teamed up with Jeremih to release a Christmas mixtape called "Merry Christmas Lil' Mama" on December 22, 2016. The mixtape features a song titled "All the Way" featuring comedian Hannibal Buress. It also includes "Stranger at the Table", "The Tragedy" featuring Noname and "I Shoulda Left You" featuring rapper Lud Foe among other festive tracks.

In February 2017, Chance took home three trophies at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, Best Rap Album for "Coloring Book" and Best Rap Performance for "No Problem". He became the first black hip-hop artist to win in the Best New Artist category since Lauryn Hill in 1999. Meanwhile, his "Coloring Book" album was the first streaming-only record to receive a Grammy nomination.

Chance surely had a good year in 2017. In addition to winning three trophies at the Grammys, he received an Emmy nomination for his song "Last Christmas" that he performed on "Saturday Night Live". Nominated for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, Chance eventually lost the award to Common with his song "Letter to the Free". Despite the loss, Chance still gave his best shot when he headlined Lollapalooza in Chicago later in November, breaking records of the largest attended performances in the event's history.

In that same month, Chance curated and headlined the Obama Foundation community event at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, where artists such as Lin-Manuel Miranda, Gloria Estefan and Aziz Ansari joined him on the stage. His work in Chicago didn't stop there. In the following year, Chance purchased the Chicago journalism website Chicagoist from WNYC. He planned to relaunch the website in that same year, before eventually postponing it to 2019.

As for his musical career, Chance was featured on Saba's "Logout" and Cardi B's "Best Life" in addition to releasing 4 songs, including "I Might Need Security", back in July. He also performed at a tribute concert celebrating late rapper Mac Miller on October 31, before unleashing two new songs, "My Own Thing" and "The Man Who Has Everything", in November.

While working on his next album "The Big Day", Chance tied the knot with longtime girlfriend Kirsten Corley on March 9, 2019 at the Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Beach, California. The album itself was released on July 26, following the release of his collaboration with Ed Sheeran and PnB Rock, "Cross Me". Containing 22 tracks that featured a wide array of guest artists such as John Legend and Megan Thee Stallion, the album debuted at No. 2 on Billboard 200 with 108,000 units.