Chancellor Johnathan Bennett, a young man from the West Chatham neighborhood of Chicago, has taken 2016 by storm. Better known as “Chance the Rapper,” Chance found himself basking in an exponential growth of popularity thanks to the release of his third mix-tape, Coloring Book.
Coloring Book is my No. 1 album of 2016. It is a catchy hard-hitting rap album that exudes gospel-inspired beats and lyrics. It is the pure definition of happiness and fun.
After countless listens, every song still has not gotten old yet. Coloring Book brings a fresh new light to hip-hop and helped my love for the genre grow. Listening to it will forever remind me of the summer of ’16: the illustrious time of collegiate anticipation.
Grammy history
The 2017 Grammy Awards was a historic one. For the first time in its history, the Grammys allowed streaming-only artists to be nominated for awards, giving Chance and others to gain an opportunity at the Grammy winnings.
The rapper went above and beyond with this chance (ha), and earned himself seven nominations including three wins:
- Best New Artist
- Best rap Performance- “No Problem”
- Best Rap Album
Along with these winnings, Chance performed one of my personal favorites “How Great (Feat. Jay Electronica and My cousin Nicole)” and absolutely left me and the rest of the world speechless.
A humble man of great talent
It is quite often rare to find an artist in today’s day and age that shows humility. Chance shows all of this and more.
Chance does his profession all out of love. He chooses to be an unsigned artist that passes out his music for free. In an article with Billboard, Chance proclaimed: “It’s not about the music being free. It’s about how it is displayed and made accessible and about artistic power… It was always about the artist-to-fan relationship.”
Chance uses his music and career to give back to the city of Chicago and those he loves. He proudly shines his faith in the Lord for all to see and yet does it selflessly and humbly.
I hope that Chance continues to be himself and to be an influential part of the hip hop/music community as a whole. Kudos to you, Mr. Chancellor Bennett.
Have you given Coloring Book a listen yet? Either if you have or not, what would you say your favorite album of 2016 is? Please feel free to comment down below and/or shoot me an email to mfthomas@mail.lipscomb.edu.
Mason, Movies and Music 
I have listened to some of Coloring Book, but for some reason never listened to the whole thing. I did really like most of what I heard. I can’t decide what my favorite album is, but one of my favorites would be The Head and The Heart’s latest record.
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Absolutely love this post. I appreciate Chance and his passion of sharing his music freely to all those who love it. I would say this was a well deserved award for the humble rapper.
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Hip-hop and rap aren’t really my genre of choice, but I have heard a lot about him and I am totally going to check it out. This is a really great post idea because I am sure a lot of people miss the live awards show and need to get caught up, including me.
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