The Untold Truth Of Chance The Rapper

Amid his meteoric rise to fame, Chance the Rapper has always done things his way by refusing to sign with a record label. However, it's not due to a lack of interest. "I've met with every A&R, VP of A&R, president of the labels, CEOs," he told Fader in 2015 (via Insider). "I know all these people." Basically, Chance has had the necessary connections — he's simply chosen not to use them.

Luckily, some execs have supported the singer-songwriter in his unlikely route to success: "They're almost like, 'Keep going. You're in uncharted territory, and you're helping to shed light on what [the future of the business] will look like, and we're all curious.'" But others have unfortunately been less kind. Chance later shared the downsides of going against the grain while speaking with Complex, alleging that certain labels have tried to stump his growth by doing things like "push [him] out of headline positions so that their artist could be a headliner or not cleared songs."

"It's not like a big conspiracy theory," Chance assured, noting that some record label execs are upset because they "wanted to make money off me and I said no," while others don't like that he's admittedly advised friends from signing with certain people. "When they hear that back, then they tell other people bad s**t about me." Yikes.

After making a big deal of refusing to sign with a record label, Chance the Rapper was hit with criticism about seemingly giving up his status as an independent artist when he agreed to a deal with Apple Music. "@apple gave me half a mil and a commercial to post Coloring Book exclusively on Apple Music for 2 weeks," he tweeted in 2017 in an effort to clarify his contract. The musician added, "That was the extent of my deal, after two weeks it was on SoundCloud for free. I needed the money and they're all good people over there."

Chance later shared some more insight on the deal on The Joe Budden Podcast. "The whole Drake-Apple deal, which I feel like is closer to what you think my s**t is, they offered to me first," he revealed. Elaborating that there was $20 million on the table for this two-project deal, the rapper said, "It would've been Surf and Coloring Book, but they wanted a solo Chance project and I didn't have that at the time ... If [Coloring Book] was [finished] on time, I would've got 20 million. But, it was off time, so I got $500,000." Chance went on to justify, "They came to me, they said, 'Here's some money,' which I used for advertising.'"

In October 2016, Chance the Rapper told fans that he'd spent the entire summer ... on a film set! Oh yes, the musician tried out his acting chops with a starring turn in Slice, a horror comedy feature film that was written and directed by one of his longtime collaborators, Austin Vesely. 

Vesely had previously worked with Chance on a number of music videos and told the Chicago Tribune that he didn't need to convince the Windy City native to give acting a try. "He basically told me that when the time comes that I could make something, he'd be there for me," Vesely said. "So I wrote a role for him in the piece." 

Chance's role in question was "a werewolf who is a former Chinese food delivery driver." As interesting as that might sound, the project unfortunately failed to mark his hot new career path as Chance the Actor. While garnering lukewarm reviews, the movie scored a mere 55 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

He may be devoted to giving away his music for free, but Chance the Rapper sure knows how to make money. From merch to tours and lucrative business partnerships, he's earned a nice chunk of change over the years, which actually landed him on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2017 with an estimated earning of $33 million.

This musician also knows how to spend it and confessed to GQ in 2017, "I go broke a lot." That's because Chance believes in putting everything he has into his career (not to mention his philanthropy) and trusts that it's a worthy investment: "I have this understanding that whatever I put out there, if I really am doing what's right, it's going to be rewarding." Illustrating his point, Chance recalled, "I remember sitting on the back of the bus on the first day of the Social Experiment tour, with my face in my hands. I emptied out my bank account, and before I did that tour, that was the number one thing I said I'd never do ... But I put all that money up, and within two weeks, when everyone was getting paid, I was like, Okay, cool, we're good again."

When asked to name the last time he was broke, the rapper admitted it pretty much happens with every new record. "The same s**t happened with Surf," Chance proclaimed. "And the same s**t happened with Coloring Book."

You know you're doing something right when your influence extends to Corporate America. It started in May 2019 when Chance the Rapper tweeted out praise for Wendy's, jokingly writing, "Positive Affirmations for today: I will have a good day, I will succeed today, Wendy's will bring back spicy nuggets at some point please please Lord let it be today." Not only did Wendy's respond, but the company actually agreed to do just that ... under one condition. "The people in charge say if you guys can get our tweet (this one right here) to 2 Million likes, they will bring SPICY CHICKEN NUGGETS BACK," Wendy's promised. It took less than 48 hours to get the necessary likes, but the spicy chicken nuggets were indeed back by that August.

So, it's no surprise then that when Chance mentioned that he met his wife at a Re/Max party on the 2019 track "Zanies and Fools," there was speculation about it boosting the brand. Chicago Business asked a marketing expert, who noted, "[It's] the best sort of endorsement because Chance apparently isn't being paid for this — he's talking about Re/Max as part of his life, and as an important part of his life." They added that this, in turn, could translate into positive brand recognition for his fans who might potentially think, "'Wow, Re/Max. That's a brand I should think about,'" when it comes time to shop for a home.

Shortly after the release of The Big Day, Chance the Rapper sparked major concern among his fan base when he sent out a series of since-deleted dark tweets in early August 2019. "I'm getting this crazy feeling that people want me to kill myself," he wrote in part (via NME). "That's not my vibe at all, but I feel the push ... I feel like even more than that, some people want me to feel ashamed. Shame is heavy yo." The rapper concluded, "The number one thing that's 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." 

Chance later clarified that he wasn't being literal — "I just want to reiterate that I don't want to kill myself, nor am I ashamed of loving my wife" — but didn't specify what had caused those initial feelings. According to speculation, it might have been the criticism he received for The Big Day (Slate, for example, noted, "It rarely feels particularly revelatory"), especially that which called him out for focusing too heavily on his marriage. "The Big Day is the sound of a man in love," Rolling Stone proclaimed. "And sometimes that's awesome."

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).