Redone: Top 10 Chance The Rapper Songs

I want to say the first time I ever heard of Chance The Rapper was around middle school, so 2012-2013. In my mind, I grouped him in with Chief Keef and Kendrick Lamar; guys that I knew about but disregarded in large part to my commitment to listen to Graduation, Friday Night Lights and Thank Me Later every day. The first actual song I remember hearing from Chance was a track that is on this list from one of my best friends at the time who knew every word. Since then Chance has become one of my very favorite humans on earth because of his faith in himself, in God and in the sort of lost art of making music that reflects you. No matter what you think of Chance, you have got to acknowledge his music is his music and no one else's.

Because of Chance's extensive catalog of Christmas projects, collaborations with other artists and The Social Experiment, and many songs without names performed only once or twice, I am only ranking the top 10 songs from Chance's four biggest solo projects.

spoiler alert: though I believe The Big Day is unfairly criticized, none of the songs on the album made the final 10.

10. Long Time (I+II)

Though I met Chance on the back end of the Acid Rap hype, I have developed quite the appreciation for his first huge mixtape, 10 Day. Long Time is the name of two tracks on this project. The first of which is a very raw story told over an innocent-enough backdrop. This comes at a time in Chance's maturation where drug use and teenage pressures get the best of him and those around him. Or at least thats how I relate to the story. The lyrics are a scratchy call for help to anyone that concerns him which shows an awareness at a young age that the actions taken, though temporarily satisfying, slowly eat at your consciousness and mental health. Long Time II attacks many of the same issues as the former; so much so that the first two verses share the exact same lyrics as the verses from the first track. The difference between part one and part two is that the first has Chance's voice distant and muddied like its coming from an old radio and part two has the voice much clearer and spearheaded by a much more upbeat instrumental and a beautiful assist from Nico Segal a.k.a Donnie Trumpet. I think this symbolizes a transition that Chance goes through in 10 Day that shows his problems as something muddy, hard to understand and therefore hard to overcome turning into a clearer path to peace and an optimistic view of the future as exemplified by the new verse to end this song, the only lyrical difference between the two parts.

9. Same Drugs

Same Drugs shows Chance's versatility that separates him from the simple title his stage name implies. Chance isn't a talented singer, but his delivery on this soft, piano-led ballad is authentic and showcase his truly unique voice. I feel like John Legend had to do something with the production of this song. The music, from the opening keys to the closing violin, is pregnant in its simplicity and the lyrics see-saw from melancholy to soulful, from reminiscent to accusatory in a love story that I still can't decide if its about Chance and his future wife or Chance and his cigarettes. Same Drugs is what true Chance fans long for in live concerts and for good reason. One of the shining moments from Chance's magnum opus, Coloring Book.

8. Paranoia

Chance's love for his native Chicago is well documented. Paranoia is a ambiguous bus ride through Chance's youthful quarrels in the dangerous and often-entrapping city. Chance has never claimed to be a gang banger or a shooter just because of his origin from the city but he does recount stories of seeing things and knowing things that marked him and that makes them his story to tell also. He does that in Paranoia, citing the neglect people he calls friends and neighbors get from government support, media coverage and law enforcement and the psychological toll that has on people who are born into these situations and stay there. The last 1:15 of this song are particularly poignant. The inner voice behind the gun on his hip and the blunt on his lip:

" i know you scared,

you should ask us if we scared too,"

Fear masked by violence or self-medication, a plight that I think plagues more people than are willing to admit it.

7. Angels

If Paranoia is the tough part of loving Chicago, Angels is Chance being happy to bare the weight of being the city's savior. A triumphant anthem for me that was the first Chance song that I loved the first time I heard it. Fellow new school Chicago artist, Saba, leads the chorus of this two-verse block party that recounts Chance's childhood, adolescent struggles and new-found responsibility of being a father. These first few songs on the list are more staples in who Chance is a person which people have become very related to because each album is about him, specifically in a different part of his life. 10 Day introduced us to a misfit high school kid that grew into the optimistically troubled artist behind Acid Rap and made enough strides by Coloring Book to father a child and become a beacon of hope to his hometown. Angels shows how Chance has persevered through trials and come back like Simba to protect what's his, guarded by divine defenders that are all around him.

6. Blessings (I+II)

Two of the best showings of Chance's ability to rap beautifully over even more beautiful music are the two tracks called Blessings on Coloring Book. The first, featuring vocals from fellow-Chicagoan Jamila Woods, is a strong, grounded selection that sounds like what a promising youth gospel group whipped up for the Sunday it was their turn to lead praise and worship. Chance's first verse has Philippians 4:13 written all over it and set the tone for what would be the quintessential project to lead the brief movement merging gospel and hip hop without the lame stereotype of "Christian rap". Chance's newfound persona of a gospel spreadin' MC, before it was cool, is made unmistakable by this juncture in the album. The outro track, featuring a dazzling quartet of new school R&B standouts Ty Dolla $ign, Raury, BJ The Chicago Kid, and Anderson .Paak, is what that same youth group presents once they've grown in membership and have the attention of every churchhouse in a hundred mile radius. The celebratory record is a perfect way to end an equally jubilant experience that is Coloring Book.

5. Summer Friends

In a quiet love letter to simpler times gone away, Francis and the Lights captivates the listener in one of the most unique ways in the first 55 seconds. The electronic, yet calming work of one of the truly distinguishable acts in music is one of the shining moments on the album. You hear remnants of this intro for the rest of this reminiscent recalling of Chance's childhood that makes me think about carefree twilights and youthful friendships that I know can't stick around as much as my nostalgia longs for them to. I just know a music video for this song would have had to include, exclusively, kids running through town streets just as the lights flickered on. Jeremih wraps up the Chicago connection with a repetitive yet substantial riff that is followed by violin chords that always make me wish this track was a bit longer.

4. No Problem

It takes a lot for me to like a song, much less an album, on first listen. So, as I sat in my computer class as a freshman in high school, listening to Coloring Book, which leaked on DatPiff, I was surprised by how roped in I was by the intro "All We Got" (I hate this couldn't be on the list). But when I saw that the second track, No Problem, featured two of the most noteworthy Southern rappers in 2 Chainz and the incomparable Lil' Wayne, I'm not going to lie, I was skeptical. Boy, was I dead wrong. Secondly to Jesus Christ, this song was the sole reason for my happiness for the next six months. I joke. But I don't think I have ever loved a song as much I loved No Problem when I first heard it. Each of the verses were as bouncy and colorful as the last, which was interesting to see 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne in a song like this. Chance gets into the bag where he mockingly acts tough while simultaneously warning against taking his kindness for weakness. His self proclaimed artistic independence is both revered and questioned but emphatically boasted in this explosive anthem. It works perfectly and this was the song that got Chance three Grammys, as far as I'm concerned. In my top 5 favorite songs of life.

3. Acid Rain

If you know me, you know I love when a rapper can take a great instrumental and just spill their thoughts. I think that's the easiest way to see who an artist is, really, apart from the desires to have a hit record or make a song with a premeditated lesson or theme. The meaning of Acid Rain is hard to pinpoint but I imagine reckless-abandon Chance, as I like to call him when he makes tracks like this, was just saying what's on his mind as far as his family, his outlook on his community, and how what he's trying to do now is impacted by who he used to be and what he wants to be. Its not incredibly complex or musical or even him being unbelievably lyrical for three minutes. But what Acid Rain does better than any song Chance has is it paints him as who he really is, without the trope of the drug addict, the newly saved Jesus freak, or the annoyingly happy rapper. Chance is just a regular man with deep, introspective thoughts balanced out by human prides and feelings of invincibility even in the rain.

2. I Might Need Security

Chance's best rapping. No question. First off, the music. I am so glad they thought of this. The Jamie Foxx sample is a great idea. But even more than that, Chance pops his **** on this track like never before. The confrontation of the 'nice guy' identity he has been given is something I was glad to see Chance do. I don't know what the "Motown 25" line is supposed to mean exactly, but the reference tickled my inner MJ stans' fancy big time. But the main idea here is Chance's actions on behalf of the city of Chicago. To be 25, without a real album at the time, and be so actively involved with the politics and philanthropy of the city is astounding and a weird flex, considering how most would imagine rappers spend their spare time. Its just a great track with great stories behind the anecdotes briefly described (See Chance explain the lyrics on Genius). The ending of the second verse is some of Chance's best examples of how he is one of the very best at combining lyricism, wordplay, individuality, emotion, consciousness, and confidence. And the covert art; if you were on Twitter in 2018, you understand the genius behind this choice alone.

1. Juice

This is what made Chance Chance. It showed just how far Chance was willing to go to separate himself from the young artists of the time. It established a sound of playful, boisterous, exuberance that embodies Chance The Rapper. This is still such a fun listen and stands out even on a project as stacked as Acid Rap. Chance is a great anthem maker; and this was his first. It feels grandiose though its subject matter probably doesn't fully register outside of South side Chicago as well as is does in it. I think that is what Chance tried to do with all of these songs; Angels, No Problem, Juice. Make the music undeniable and layer it with authentic, true to self stories to make those that can't relate, relate. Its part of the reason why I relate to Chance so much. I don't relate to many of the experiences he endures in his music but its just that, the music, that makes me feel like Chance is the same kid I once was. Juice is the essential Chance the Rapper song and its sound, message, and sentiment is as synonymous with the artist as his signature ad-lib. I don't even want to attempt to spell it.