Chancelor Bennett, the most charismatic Chicago MC since Kanye West, is having the best year of his young life. The 20-year-old's breakthrough mixtape Acid Rap, under the moniker Chance The Rapper, earned him a BET Award nomination, the chance to team up with Donald Glover and Justin Bieber (sadly not in the same studio) as well as a support slot with Eminem on tour. It also sold so many illegal copies that it entered the Billboard chart. As such, this month he was nominated for the BBC's Sound of 2014 and was declared Spin magazine's "Rapper of The Year".
What makes him so special? Bennett's nasal delivery recalls Finley Quaye covering Marshall Mathers but he has a dusty-drums-and-goofy-wordplay charm all of his own. To mark his winter Social Experiment tour, we spoke to the MC about Kanye's opinion of Acid Rap, working for Barack Obama and the night Michael Jackson died.
GQ: How was playing Reading festival for the first time earlier this year?
Chance The Rapper: It was ridiculous. It might have been in the top seven or eight shows performed ever. I saw a kid that was on someone's shoulders, maybe third row, going HAM. Then the beat dropped, I guess he fell over and he crowd-surfed towards the back.
I looked up and he was on someone else's shoulders 12 rows back.
Someone else picked him up, because it was so crackin'.
What's the best thing you've eaten on tour?
My God, all I ate is bread - I read that France has all the pastries on deck. The worst thing? I made a mistake by eating some vegetables a few days ago as somebody told me to try some. [The thing is] I figured out what I liked to eat when I was 13 when my parents stopped making me eat stuff.
**You recently toured with Eminem. What do you notice after seeing him perform night after night?
** I only saw him one time. The first night I got this terrible headache when I came off stage, fell asleep and missed the whole show. The second night, me and Kendrick [Lamar] were trying to get on stage but security was crazy. We tried to go out to the front pit but security wouldn't let us in. The third night everyone got together and piled into the soundbooth to watch it. It was ridiculous. When he played "Kill You" I felt like the first time I ever heard it: this dude is mentally insane. He's really doing it - I was afraid he was going to actually kill me.
What was the strangest record in your parent's collection?
People are probably not going to f*** with me on this but my parents were really into the Rolling Stones and I never got into them to this day. I've seen them in concert and actually respect and appreciate them live - I saw them once at United Center - but it was never my bag. I associate them with "parent music" which is not necessarily great.
What question are you bored of answering already?
I could give you three - "What did you get suspended [from high school] for?" "What is *Acid Rap * about?" and - my pet peeve question - "When did you know you were famous?" I'll do any interview, I'm not a dick about it, but those three.
**When you released the video for "Everybody's Somebody" you explained it had "no hoes, weed... guns or storyline." What other hip-hop trend needs to die out?
** It's not necessarily that I think anything needs to die out. Anything is respectable in its own realm. I want my music to be beautiful. When I first started doing videos with my boy Austin Vesely, we talked about doing homages to great directors. When I first started in hiphop everybody wanted to do Seventies [style cinematography] - "I'm going to cut to some random clip which has nothing to do with the song" or "I'm going to play with the focus" or just a random weed shot of someone exhaling - I hated that. On my video "F*** You Tahm Bout" we we based it off of
Raging Bull.I do respect everything else though. I don't want it to be "Everybody's Somebody" is the best, everything else is terrible.
What was the last movie that really impressed you?
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.It's not a new movie just something I've slept on. I'm doing a video for "Paranoia" right now - that's the first time I said that - that's like basically the exact same. Just the cinematography: every shot you could just press pause and that would be something you could frame.
What lyric are you most proud of writing?
There was one ongoing thing in "Bout A Dolla" about a deer. It didn't really make sense but I kept on going with it: [raps] "You can dancer, back up / Damn dear prancers, don't dash for dames / Don't dip for chips, don't give up your chain / Let me flash the bang, wait and see if they buck / Let me see if they miss, if they hit me it's luck."
Can you recommend a good book?
Freakonomics. It made me value opinions less as there are certain trends that are just solid fact. I could take in the whole statistical approach to the world and how numbers can forsee a lot of shit. I want to tell people to read The Prince by Machiavelli - check that one out. It's just changed my attack so I think so much more inwardly.
What surprised you most about Acid Rap entering the charts?
I got nominated for a BET hiphop award for Best Mixtape Of The Year. That's the craziest thing that's ever happened to me in my life. That came out of nowhere. It was kinda a free mixtape...but it was kinda an album. I gave it out for free but it was trying to make a statement about the value of songs. A project, an album, an EP, a mixtape or a collection of songs is way more valuable than £14.99. I was trying to prove a point and it was really cool that even after putting it out as a mixtape it moved enough units - illegally, nothing from my camp, not with my permission - to chart. How do you put a monetary value on a song, on how it makes somebody feel or how many different places it can be exploited? That song can carry a commercial and bring 1,000 or 90,000 bodies to a concert - it can do a lot more than the one dollar it's worth when you buy it legally. If it's a dollar, you might as well steal it right?
Where do you go for suits?
This is a great question because I have so many answers. My father is Ken Bennett and when I was younger he was a supervisor for streets and sanitation. He had worked in a lot of kinds of different city government but I remember he would go to this job, where everyone was in reflectors, a jumpsuit and regular clothes and he was never not in a suit. Now my dad is the regional director - when we go to the movies, when he comes to my shows, he always wears a suit. I was always thought that's what you're supposed to do. If I was to buy a suit, I'd probably go to Men's Wearhouse - because you're going to like the way you look, they guarantee it.
What's been your best recent fashion purchase?
I'm not into clothes at all. I'm usually poorly dressed - or I used to be. I get a lot of clothes for free as a lot of clothing companies send us big boxes. I got a bucket hat from Leaders in Chicago that - I don't know if this is a children's literary magazine - but it's been a pussy magnet of sorts. It's actually been dangerous the way pussy's been flying at me.
What did it mean for you to have Kanye West say he liked Acid Rap?
Um. I'm going to be real with you because this is GQ magazine and you guys are the realest. I don't know if Kanye even ever listened to Acid Rap. I just tweeted "Kanye likes Acid Rap" and a bunch of links went out. I guess it sounds stupid now saying it but Kanye
would like Acid Rap! I know a lot of Kanye's close friends and they like Acid Rap. I don't know if Kanye ever heard it, I just said it on Twitter. People believe Twittter so much and it's not a thing - I'm never met Kanye to his face and he definitely hasn't sent me an email - then the regurgitations of the story become "Kanye and Chance the rapper in the studio together! Giving each other piggyback rides and playing leapfrog! Best friends from Chicago!" I have no idea what Kanye thinks of Acid Rap * or even if he's even ever heard of me - but what if he did? I tweeted it just to f** with the world - but it's f***ed up the world because people started believeing a little white lie. Or a huge lie. When people ask me about it I just usually just say "I dunno" or tell them not to ask me that question.
**Describe your worst ever gig?
** Man, I played some terrible gigs. Maybe a year and a half ago I did a show for my aunt where she put together this cancer awareness rally. It was really just a bunch of mid forties and older black women who met up at the cultural centre at Chicago. It was just a bad show - I still rapped, I did my thing, but I remember the person who performed before me was a Hispanic Michael Jackson impersonator. I didn't have a DJ so I played it off my iPod... and my iPod died.
What's the strangest gift you've ever got from a fan?
I've gotten a lot of paintings. The best thing I got though was a fan gave me my shirt back. I always take off my shirt and throw it into the crowd as I always get way too excited. A fan came backstage and he took it off his back, he didn't have another shirt on and we just chilled together. He didn't have a shirt, I had a shirt - it was cool.
You're a big fan of Jamiroquai. Has Jay Kay reached out to you?
I would love for that to happen! I love Travelling Without Moving the whole album and what I'm really into is watching the live performances. His vocals live are crazy. That's what I try and do with my shows - my shows are not inaudible, my mic is super loud over the mp3.
What's your drink of choice?
Kiwi Mistic. Power C Vitamin Water. Simply Lemonade. Shirley Temples. Jägerbombs. Cold milk with a PB&J sandwich with more jelly than peanut butter.
What's a Chance The Rapper groupie like?
Sexy. Light skin. And very into Queen and Coolio - they are her two favourites.
What's the best advice you've ever received?
Just have fun with it. Solely that. Somebody told me "There's nothing like a good person. They can change your whole day, they can change your whole life." Ed Sheeran's one of those. He's very happy and he's a non-negative person. Ed Sheeran's the shit! That's my boy he's hilarious.
Your father worked with Barack Obama. Have you met him?
I've met him, worked for him a couple of times. He's literally one of the most genuine and tall people to a six year old. My Dad's known him for a really long time and worked for him when he ran for congress, when he ran for senator, when he worked for the senate.
The only jobs I've ever had, other than rapping, were working for my Dad; I used to intern, running around grabbing coffees.
That was a really cool thing too. I worked for him in the first election. I remember there was a lots going on - that was when I was really bad, getting into a lot of trouble, getting arrested all the time. I was doing that shit, and the President Obama shit. I'd do that during the day and then go out at night and get into trouble. If I wasn't doing that during the day I'd definitely do that shit all day. I saw [Barack] a lot when I was really young he did this thing when he was running for congress when he went to everybody's house in seven different wards in Chicago. He went door to door and sat in their living rooms - just sat and talked to people. I remember when he was doing our block, he did our house even though he knew us, he just came and chilled for a second. He is the man. Meeting Barack Obama is like meeting Michael Jackson - not that I've met Michael Jackson - but
[Obama] is a very sincere genuine guy. I remember thinking his name was funny but I don't know if I told him that. I met him a bunch of times since then but I'm not a figure in his life.
Describe how you felt the night Michael Jackson died.
I remember that day like it's happening right now. We were downtown, I was with my best friend Justin, we were arguing about some trivial stuff. I was just about to start fighting and I just remember he looked down because he got a text. I remember feeling weird, it felt like downtown was moving slower. I called my Mom - and you call your Mom when some crazy shit happens. Its hard to explain as I don't know if everyone hasthatperson when they grow up - Michael Jackson was definitely *that * person for me. I had every video cassette, every CD, every jacket when I was five. I was growing up on *Off The Wall * Michael Jackson when *Dangerous * Michael Jackson was keeping that Bad Michael Jackson alive. It's weird for me - the first time in front of people in a crowd was when I danced in my kindergarten graduation dressed as Michael Jackson. For the third grade talent shows that was a thing for me: when I got famous I was going to rap at the Michael Jackson tribute concert when he was 60 at the BET awards. That was my thing - it was a weird feeling. It still doesn't feel real.
What's the biggest thing you learned from Donald Glover?
Man, I learned so much from Donald. I definitely learned that when you sign off on contracts you give someone a percentage of your worth. Whether it be signing a lawyer, a business manager, a label or anybody. You're giving them a percentage of all your earnings.
The thing with Donald is he's very normal, just talking like anybody else, but randomly he'll give a lecture, mid-way through joking around. Then he'll just go back to laughing and joking about dicks.
What do record label execs say that annoys you?
I could give you a million of them - I've met with everybody. "We really get it. We love music. We're not trying to make yousell your soulor anything!" When someone says that to you it's just like "Fo sho, let me get up out of here." And there's always of course. "We're different. We're a boutique label. An indie-thinking label with major funding." The funniest are those ones...
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