Photo Credit: AP Photo
Chance the Rapper is fresh off of the release of his debut album Big Day, an album practically dedicated to his wife as a lot of the material was inspired by his new marriage. Unfortunately, as some may have expected, when people aren’t in relationships or happy ones, they don’t want to see others happy and will complain about people having outward displays of affection and that’s no different here. He posted a series of tweets saying that people wanted him to feel shame for being open about his relationship in his music.
I’m getting this crazy feeling that people want me to kill myself 😢
— The Big Day out now (@chancetherapper) August 5, 2019
And I feel like even more than that, some people want me to feel ashamed.
— The Big Day out now (@chancetherapper) August 5, 2019
He went on to say “What’s really weird is that music is the number one thing that influences how I feel on the daily. Like can really push me to one side or the other. And thats super raw to me. Cause I’m sure there’s other people that get their fuel from music. So for anybody out there thats texted me the past few days, I appreciate you.”
“And I’m happy being able to spend time with my family and do alot of the things I used to do before I got so wrapped up in making this project. And I wanna let some of these feelings go cause thats whats twitter is for. For people to say exactly whats on their hearts. And the number one thing thats been on my heart and has been reaffirmed in the last week that I’m now 100% sure of is..That I LOVE my wife.”
Now the shame part is simply bullying and despite what sells and what’s popular, we always support artists exploring and releasing the music they feel is therapeutic for them or that they feel they need to share. It’s a part of the artistic process. As for the suicidal part, these tweets should be a message to the public to stop it. If you don’t like the project, either keep it to yourself or don’t tag his name in it. One of the reasons this is significant is the fact that Chance is someone who has been working independently for years, constantly sharing his music for free. You don’t find selfless people like that. And a significant amount of his time has gone into advocacy and working to help his hometown of Chicago. That’s why when he releases a new project, it’s a big deal because he’s giving it to his fans… for free. It’s possible the pressure could be putting the thoughts of suicide in his head but hearing that alone should be enough for people to lay off.
When we covered his album release, we pointed out how he’s the antithesis of all the negative rapper stereotypes in the sense that he promotes legal businesses, being faithful in a relationship, marriage and he’s working to save his community instead of contributing to its degeneracy with drug sales, violence, etc. If anything, he’s a figure to celebrate and not put down. Whatever it is Chance is going through, we have his back and hope that his fans will offer him the support he needs as well.
