Chance the Rapper Quotes

One of the first times I ever performed in front of a big group of people was at my kindergarten graduation. I did, like, a Michael Jackson impersonation as, like, a five year old. I had the suit and blazer, the glove and the fedora, and I just performed a whole Michael Jackson song. I'm sure it was 'Smooth Criminal.

I think it's so dope that I'm here in Chicago and contributing to the music scene that's thriving. People are so happy Chicago's shining that everyone is willing to say 'I represent Chicago.' That wasn't always the case.

A cool & diversified version of a mix tape. The BreakBeat Poets is a thorough and complete summation of Golden Era writers who continue to build the scene of literary and performance poetry.

People wanna say that they're part Native American or mixed, or anything other than black. We're raised to believe that there's something better about not being fully black, something eccentric about it. I'm saying I used to tell girls that I was mixed, which is a bold-faced lie!

Both of my parents graduated from high school, both attended college, both have government jobs now. They've always been very adamant about me finishing high school and finishing college.

Chicago is a beautiful city - the architecture, the food, everything in the city is awesome.

To me, I feel like basketball and hip-hop have always been kinda conjoined because they're very similar in their competitive nature, you know what I'm sayin'? It's about technical skill, and then there's just God-given talent.

My dad is probably the most proud person when it comes to me, and we have a great relationship. If people have a compliment about my character, they usually say they can tell I was raised right, and that's the truth.

I don't know where people think I'm from, but I'm from Chicago. It's really just that. People wanna romanticize it and say, 'There's two sides to it, and it's a beautiful love/hate story of violence and music.' But it's really just a very scummy place where people don't have respect for other people's lives.

I'm light skinned, and I used to lean on that because that's something a lot of black people pride themselves on, and it's weird.

Jeremih has been my favorite artist to collab with.

I think our duty as American citizens is to be involved and engaged in anything that affects us. As an artist, I have to use my platform, and as a dad, a brother, and a black man, I have to be as socially woke and present as possible.

It wasn't until I left that I realised it's not weird to grow up in certain cities and, by the age of 27 or 28, for all of your friends to still be alive. I can think of a lot of kids that I knew in Chicago who were supposed to grow up but didn't.

The weird thing about rap is that you don't get compared in the same way that athletes do, even though it's probably the most competitive sport in music. In basketball, they look at a player and say: 'This guy was the best in his prime at this sport.' But in rap it's not until you're dead or retired that people think about it like that.

Sometimes the truth don't rhyme

Kanye took me from a kid who listened to music to a kid who lived music.

Music can kind of make you one-dimensional. People see what's on the surface and what you rap about, and they make their decision on who you are from there.

My favorite artist in the world is Michael Jackson, and he revolutionized the music video aspect of music.

My come-out record, '10 Day,' was the thing people were supposed to hear and figure out 'he's good' or 'he's not good.' 'Acid Rap' is the comeback tape, and it asks way bigger and better questions than, 'Is he good at rapping?

Fame or perceived success - it all comes from groupthink.

The whole tape [Dedication 5] is amazing. It's my favourite accomplishment [working with Lil Wayne] and I say that with thought. It's the biggest accomplishment I've made today, because Lil Wayne is probably the biggest reason why I'm sitting here right now, rapping and doing what I do. I'm a huge Wayne fan forever.

I've never met Eminem; you don't meet Eminem. He has his own secret service.

The idea of 'talking white,' a lot of people grew up around that, just the idea that if you speak with proper diction and come off as educated that it's not black and that it's actually anti-black and should be considered only something that white people would do.

People always tell me I'm the complete opposite of Chief Keef and act like I'm supposed to stop him from making his music. But I like Chief Keef, so it's always super awkward. I just make music I like.

I dont really like meetings, I like recording and performing music. I need to set myself up for when the time does come that I need better distribution or just a bigger team behind me.

For me, performing is the biggest part of being a rapper. There's nothing like the feeling of screaming your story to people.

Depending on the story that you're telling, you can be relatable to everybody or nobody. I try and tell everybody's story.

I don't really have control over my direct impression on people anymore. I used to be the person putting my CD in people's hands. But I'm kind of a mainstream artist now. Not by choice.

Chance the Rapper' is many things. I'm constantly evolving.

The whole point of 'Acid Rap' was just to ask people a question: does the music business side of this dictate what type of project this is? If it's all original music and it's got this much emotion around it and it connects this way with this many people, is it a mixtape? What's an 'album' these days, anyways?

It's important to go against the grain. My favorite celebrity, across arts and sports and everything, is Muhammad Ali. And he was famous for speaking inflammatory things that were polarizing but also were important to building who he was as a man and his legacy. And in the end, he was right about most of the s... he was talkin' about.

Everybody's somebody's everything

I think even before I knew I wanted to be a rapper, I wanted to be an entertainer. I was really into Michael Jackson as a kid.

I made the decision that I was going to make rap music in, like, fourth grade, so it's been something I was saying for a long time.

I make money from touring and selling merchandise, and I honestly believe if you put effort into something and you execute properly, you don't necessarily have to go through the traditional ways.

Rap music is a combination of many different arts to make something new. There's always been a stigma that its existence would be short and only appeal to a certain group - but it's the biggest music in the world.