Photo by Daniel Boczarski, 2015
Chance the Rapper might be the artist in the music industry that deserves the most success. Everything he has achieved he earned for himself. Over the course of three albums, one collaborative project under the name The Social Experiment and a mixtape with Lil B Chance has completely rewritten the rules for how an artist can release their music and own their career. This is a man who has refused to sign with major labels and has so far only released his music for “free” (Coloring Book can be streamed on all the major platforms, where as his other releases have been free downloads). Despite all the personal limitations he has put on his work he is easily one of the biggest rappers in the world as he attracts the best producers and guest vocalists and has appearances on plenty of other huge artists tracks.
What has to be one of the last shows at Echo Beach of the year (its going to start getting really cold really soon down by the lake) with an absolutely packed crowd eager to see the 23 year old superstar and party with him. After a failed attempt for crew members to pull a red curtain across the stage since it was too windy Chano came out to perform Angels, the first single off of his newest album Coloring Book. He would turn his microphone towards the crowd to shout his signature “Ack Ack Ack’s”. Right from the get go, he was shouting out his praises for Toronto stroking the ego us Torontonians have. The show featured plenty of newer material including Blessings and when he got to the line “And gave Donnie a trumpet in case I get shortness of breath” a spotlight went up over his horn player and collaborator Donnie Trumpet making his line very literal. Blessings showed just how spiritual of an experience the show was going to be, as by the end it seemed more like a spending two hours at a Baptist service then a typical concert.
Out of breath from running around so much Chance told the adoring crowd “It’s been a minute since I’ve played Toronto. My name is Chance the Rapper from Chicago Illinois and this is the Magnificent Coloring World.” Starting about five songs in a large Muppet like puppet named Carlos the Lion that started a narrative than ran through the rest of the show as Carlos would help lead segues into songs including telling him to go way back in his catalogue. Performing such older songs like Pusha Man, Smoke Again and Cocoa Butter Kisses all from Acid Rap brought the memories back to when you heard Chance for the first time from a friend or a blog that said it was a must listen to album. The only downside to hearing these classic songs is they have been updated to sound like his newer material, which didn’t suit them and might be his weakest album to date. The gospel infused Cocoa Butter Kisses lost its dark edge as it had a faster and much more upbeat music set to it. Most rappers have a hype man or a band member that will shout out the last line of each bar; instead Chance would just turn his mic towards the crowd. While it is nice that he is getting his fans so into the show, most of the time it was impossible to hear other people rapping along, and just seemed to mute a song right when it was getting good.
The puppets kept coming throughout the show as a female one popped up on stage to duet with Chance on Same Drugs as he played the piano showing off his musical chops. Chance performed a medley of his guest verses headlined by the Action Bronson song Baby Blue and finishing with the Kanye West song Ultralight Beam that seemed to make the crowd go bonkers. The very boisterous male dominated crowd was quite happy to mosh around to No Problem, another single from his latest album as Chance sprayed water on the fans up front. The show went into a dream like sequence as a dreadlocked puppet that looked a lot like the rapper D.R.A.M. performed the song D.R.A.M. Sings Special (duh). The highlight of the show came in the form of Sunday Candy, a song from the Donnie Trumpet lead project The Social Experiment and the album Surf.
After playing Blessings (Reprise) as the last song of the set, Chance came back out very quickly to play Summer Friends a title that appears on most of his merchandise. While there were problems with relaying on the crowd too much, and by virtue of having such an extravagant setup the show seemed over choreographed losing its spontaneity and taking his gospel infused music to a whole other level that seemed too preachy at time the crowd was loving it and it really showcased what a world class talent and creator Chance the Rapper is. It’s just been announced that Chance will be playing at the White House for the Christmas tree lighting, you can’t help but be amazed at everything he has earned.
