Acid Rap by Chance the Rapper

Chance the Rapper's new album is more like an emotional roller coaster than a mere mixtape. I guess it's just a reflection of his personality-- in an interview with Rolling Stone, Chance calls himself "many thing… constantly evolving, and it's just the beginning" . Taking listeners from euphoric to on the verge of tears to anxious to euphoric all over again, Acid Rap speaks the voice of Chance's fellow Chicagans who are constantly in danger. Acid Rap, his second album, did much better than his first-- even receiving a nomination for the 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards. Like Macklemore in a way, Chance uses his popularity from his music to make powerful statements, as he described the drug obsessed, gang ridden, unstoppable Chicago neighborhoods. He even put the album up for free download here so his messages could reach everyone.

The entire album is filled with sounds. Even though I could do without the piercing "agh!" that's all over the place, the mixture of reggae-y beats, piano, saxophone, and choral voices is really working out for Chance.

"Pushaman/Paranoia", though constantly changing tone, somehow works really well. Chance excitedly yet suavely sings about the "Pushaman", or drug dealer. Then, about three minutes into the songs, the beat fades and slows down, clearly paralleling the narrator's high. Then comes the sudden, heartbreaking, lyric, "They murking kids; they murder kids" that can't possibly be missed. Chance, or Chance's character in this song, seems to note the drug problems in his neighborhood yet at the same time cannot avoid these problems. This same concept appears in "Cocoa Butter Kisses", where Chance touchingly misses his mother and grandmother's kisses, but, Chance wails,  because of "cigarettes on cigerettes/ my mama think I stank".

But it's okay, guys, because in "Everybody's Something" Chance tells us that "everybody's somebody's everything/…/ nobody's nothing". And, since "what's better than followers is falling in love", as we learn in "That's Love", maybe the world just needs Chance the Rapper to spread some love.