Chance The Rapper is a lot of things. He’s an humanitarian, a father and lately, a supporter of criticism.
In an interview with Robyn Neal Tuesday (Oct. 11) the “Blessings” artist provided insight into his creative roots within Chicago and why he doesn’t get stressed when it comes to his critics. “I did a song and someone didn’t like it,” he said of the untitled jam with Daniel Cesar performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in September.
The song was beloved by critics including The Atlantic, who called it a “spell of radical humility.” But one review caught the attention of most. “Enough of the Apollo sh*t. What the f**k is he talking about? He’s too positive,” Budden said during a segment on Complex’s Everyday Struggle. “This positive Chance s**t, that ni**a better go back to Chicago. I want a G Herbo feature– this is too positive. I love Chance, but get this collab out of here? Is this the only way we can get on late night?”
Chance addressed Budden by name, acknowledging his willingness to accept criticism but also remain confident about his craft.
“I don’t get upset about stuff like that because that’s what music is,” he said. “You don’t always have to have songs that everyone likes or always make music that the contemporary best or to fit in whats around. You can just make music and if you’re confident enough, you will get to perform it on late night.”
The rapper then proclaimed his position as not just a culture shifter, but a creator of it. “There’s this idea that you have to make things for the culture and push the culture forward and it’s like, ni**a I am the culture. Whatever decisions I made, they’re made and I also f**k with Joe Budden, I know he has to do his thing. He has a talk show now but before he was an artist and he got to do whatever he wanted. Now he has to go to his job and clock in and clock out and provide his insight. Ni**as gotta do what they gotta do.”
Check out the rest of the interview above.