It’s been 10 years since Chance The Rapper dropped his breakthrough mixtape, Acid Rap, and it’s still as relevant and beloved today as it was back then. It was Chance’s second mixtape, following his debut project, 10 Day, which he released in 2012.
While 10 Day received some acclaim, it was Acid Rap that put Chance on the map.
The album made its debut at number 63 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums in July 2013, as a result of downloads of bootleg copies.
The success on brought in some major accolades for Chance.
In 2013, he was named one of Complex’s “10 New Chicago Rappers to Watch Out For,” and in 2014, he won the BET award for Best New Artist. The mixtape also landed on several “best of” lists, including Rolling Stone’s “50 Best Albums of 2013” and Spin’s “50 Best Albums of 2013.”
But the impact of Acid Rap goes beyond just sales and accolades. The mixtape was a game-changer for the rap industry in terms of its distribution and marketing. Chance made the decision to release the mixtape for free on SoundCloud, a move that was unconventional at the time but ultimately paid off in spades.
Chance himself has spoken about its significance. In an interview with Billboard in 2019, he said, “I think it was the first time that I had a clear-cut idea of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it. That project is super important to me and it’s super important to Chicago and to hip-hop in general.”
In current Chance news, his upcoming LP Star Line Gallery is in the works. He spoke about it last month on TODAY with Carson Daly.
“Star Line Gallery has been well underway. I started it off when I first travelled to Ghana last year, and met with some of the top contemporary artists, painters, sculptors – all types of different visual artists in the world, and kinda started creating connections overseas with artists in Jamaica, and artists on the continent, and we basically come together to create new pieces … I think typically, as recording artists, we like make a bunch of songs, like 12 to 16 songs, and we find one artist to collaborate with to make a piece that represents the whole album, and with this it gives me a better opportunity to give each song their own identity, but also be inspired by the artists from the inception of the idea.”
