School had just gotten out for summer break and you were about to become a high schooler. You and your friends took the summer to just chill and hang out before the heavy load of homework would ultimately come crashing down on you in the fall. You wake up around 11 A.M. one morning, make yourself some Eggo waffles, and watch "The Office" when all of a sudden your friend texts you to come over.
You have your parents drive you to his house and you walk through his front door to find him in his living room playing Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and blasting music from a rapper you've never heard of before. "Who is this?" you ask, weirded out by the strange, almost nasally voice in the music. "It's Chance the Rapper," your friend responds, "this sh*t SLAPS."
For many late 90s and early 2000s kids, Chance the Rapper's "Acid Rap" was their first exposure to what would ultimately grow into every category of rap that didn't fall under hard rap or boom bap. From songs like "Cocoa Butter Kisses" that put you in a good mood no matter how down you feel to "Favorite Song" that you could play in the car with your buddies (3 years later once you could drive) and rap every word to, Chance was able to inspire an entire generation of hip hop fans with a single project that defied the boundaries of hip hop.
No matter what rapper you're talking to nowadays, if you ask them who their inspiration was they are going to mention Kanye West, and Chance falls into this category; yet, while every other rapper found themselves pulling from West's musical style to help them create their projects, Chance seems to only pull from and relate to West's level of creativity. Chance has defined himself as one of the most unique artists in the rap game, and to be that unique and that success is a rare occurrence.
Soon a generation of rappers sprung up that didn't cite West as their inspiration in interviews, but Chance. Chance's name has been mentioned in countless songs, and he's been featured on tracks by artists from countless genres.
Chance the Rapper is no longer a rapper but a universal artist, and this is how he changed the rap game.
The number of hip hop artists who have followed in Chance's footsteps and found themselves combining their rap with other alternative genres is insane. When "Acid Rap" came out I truly don't think many people knew what to think of it. It was like "okay yeah this dude's a lyricist but what is this music?" Over the past few years, the album has often been noted as one of the milestones in the history of the rap game, and I couldn't be happier to have it in my library.
