Enjoy Your 4:20 With This Story About a Weed Bust Giving Us Chance the Rapper
Last night Chance the Rapper blessed us with his highly-anticipated third project, Coloring Book, and you can hear it for free. I’m listening to it while writing this, and so far Chance has another classic on his hands. He and Kanye West continue their “Ultralight Beam” momentum with CB‘s opener “All We Got,” accompanied by the Chicago Children’s Choir. The gospel-influenced anthem sets the tone for the entire project, which also includes guest appearances from Lil Wayne, Young Thug, Justin Bieber, Towkio, Jay Electronica, Future, Lil Yachty, and much more.
To get ready for the release I went back and listened to Chance’s previous two projects, which reminded me of this crazy story I had heard about the origin of his debut 10 Day. I found a great video of Chano recapping the incident, and you can watch it below. It turns out we have weed to thank for Chance’s music reaching the masses, and I don’t just mean in the smoking-to-tap-into-creativity sense.
A high school student who wasn’t doing much student-ing, Lil Chano from 79th was more interested in blunts and girls. While combining both activities one day after school, his lady friend had to tap out and go home, leaving him with half of a blunt. Rather than facing it himself, the selfless future superstar stored the blunt in his backpack for later. The next day, he was about to walk into school before he remembered he was packing. He quickly did a 360° and walked back away from the school, knowing they’d catch him with his precious cargo before his first break. Chance walked a few blocks away from the school and found some of the homies in a nearby alleyway, and the rest is history. He pulled out the abbreviated blunt to smoke with his friends, and a police officer that the kids knew all too well popped up out of nowhere to ruin the day.
As a result of Chance’s arrest for that infamous blunt, he was suspended from Jones College Prep in Chicago for ten days. He had already been making music, but this mandatory break from daily educational obligations gave him an opportunity to create. The music he wrote during that suspension became the foundation for his debut project 10 Day, and ultimately the unique sound he introduced to a city (and genre) that desperately needed a breath of fresh air. Some marijuana arrests include a silver lining.
So hit up your favorite dispensary or delivery service and enjoy Coloring Book the way Chance intended.
Header Image Courtesy of Genius
CO: Bill Passed Would Require School Districts To Allow Medical Marijuana The marijuana industry is in a ‘catch-22’ – Business Insider
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