Top 146 Quotes & Sayings by Chance The Rapper
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Chance The Rapper.
Last updated on September 18, 2024.
I don't 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.
When I write, I work off of a theme, an emotion, a narrative - thinking of it and then expounding on it.
I can't see myself ever having somebody say something about me on a song and me being like, 'All right, now I'm about to say something about them on a song.'
I've never met Eminem; you don't meet Eminem. He has his own secret service.
I think, as a black man, I have a responsibility to have knowledge and have an opinion.
Taylor Swift is just dope. She is an ill songwriter.
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 had already been making music for my whole high school life, and '10 Day,' which took me a whole year to finish, was about working with a lot of different producers and learning all of the aspects about being a rapper, from shows to recording to studio etiquette to marketing.
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.
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.
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.
I think that's always the goal of art, is to make people ask themselves questions.
For me, performing is the biggest part of being a rapper. There's nothing like the feeling of screaming your story to people.
My parents are super cheap.
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.
I don't think I really knew I was going to be a rapper until sixth grade. Even then, it was still kind of - I was in sixth grade. I was always saying I was going to become a rapper.
'Chance the Rapper' is many things. I'm constantly evolving.
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!
I go broke a lot... I go broke a lot because I have this understanding that whatever I put out there, if I really am doing what's right, it's going to be rewarding, you know?
I can't gain anything off of anyone else not succeeding.
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 just need to take better care of myself. I try to push it as far as I can.
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.
Depending on the story that you're telling, you can be relatable to everybody or nobody. I try and tell everybody's story.
Something I try to instill in others is to just be a good person. It's a decision you make a million times a day. But if you just keep trying, good stuff comes to you in an ordained way.
I'm a good man, and I'm gonna become a better man.
Jeremih has been my favorite artist to collab with.
The problem is that my generation was pacified into believing that racism existed only in our history books.
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?
I remember sitting on the back of the bus on the first day of the Social Experiment tour with my face in my hands. I emptied out my bank account, and before I did that tour, that was the number one thing I said I'd never do. I'll never empty out my savings.
My favorite artist in the world is Michael Jackson, and he revolutionized the music video aspect of music.
Colorism and racism don't stop when you're a musician or when you have wealth or when you're in any given position.
Kanye took me from a kid who listened to music to a kid who lived music.
When you're a Chicago artist, to play Lollapalooza, that's not a normal thing. It's artists on a path to a certain place that do that. Chief Keef did it; Kids These Days did it; Cool Kids did it. And I'm the next Cool-Kids-Chief, if you will.
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.
I always wanted to be more of a person that people enjoy. Somebody that will make you laugh. I'm talking about just my personality, not necessarily how my music sounds.
With 'Acid Rap,' I allowed myself to be really open-minded and free with who I allowed into my musical space. I wanted to make a cohesive product, but I also just want to make a bunch of dope songs inspired by whatever sounds I liked.
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.
I make my money off of touring and merchandise. And I'm lucky I have really loyal fans that understand how it works and support.
There's a hunger in me that always wants to be creating and orating, telling people something and giving them information and getting feedback. There are so many questions that I'm trying to ask, and I'm still so far from being done saying what I gotta say.
My parents always wanted me to go to college.
I don't think I ever wanted to be like Kanye in personality. I think I definitely want to, have always wanted to, have his boldness or assurance in myself.
I've always been able to defend Kanye.
When you make stuff from the 'you' point of view, you really can't go wrong.
I feel like LeBron James is an amazing basketball player, but he's also a community person.
I've come to understand that art is awesome and beautiful because it's a reflection of life - but it's just a reflection, and the real thing is my daughter.
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.
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?'
I don't see myself ever being in a position where I need to sign to a label.
I'm very into film and strengthening what it means to be a rapper and to be a black dude from Chicago.
My daughter, when she was still in utero, she had, they call it atrial flutters. It's kind of like an irregular heartbeat. But when you're in utero, it's real hard to detect and also to treat.
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.
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.
Anything is respectable in its own realm.
I would say almost 60 percent of working with Kanye - let's say 53 percent of working with Kanye - is speeches.
I hate eating vegetables. The only vegetables I eat are lettuce on a burger.
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.
Every song on '10 Day' is a completely different sound - the cadence, the flow, even the production - because I like so many different types of music and because my taste is so refined. 'Acid Rap' is another tape where every song sounds different.
Fame or perceived success - it all comes from groupthink.
There's nothing like doing a show at home. When you do a show in Chicago, there's just a certain love that you don't feel anywhere else; it's like home base.
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