Spike Lee’s current film Chi-Raq received mixed reviews from the masses with a few people praising the reel’s message while others feared that it would shine a negative light on the city of Chicago. One of those natives being Chance the Rapper.
The “Sunday Candy” MC voiced his concern over the movie’s release, stating that it’s “problematic.” Various responses to the film also prompted a previous statement from Lee who said during an interview on Sway in the Morning, “If you have not seen the film and you felt that we were making fun of the murders on the streets of Chicago or that we were making light of it, let me ask everyone a question: Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and nephew was murdered in Chicago, why would Jennifer Hudson be in a film that ridiculed her murdered mother, brother and nephew? Why would she be a part of that?”
The famed director’s stance on the film didn’t stop there. Recently during a speech at Northwestern University (March 3), the filmographer also spoke about the opposition toward his reel, and addressed Chance again.
“Chance the Rapper’s a fraud. Straight-up fraud,” he said. “He puts himself up as a speaker of the people, but that means you have to put truths that you see. That doesn’t mean you can pick and choose what you talk about.”
Released on Dec. 4, Chi-Raq tells the story of a group of women who abstain from sexual intercourse with their partners as a means to stop the violence that’s plaguing the city. It’s also based off of a Greek comedy play titled Lysistrata by Aristophanes.