Chance the Rapper

Chance the Rapper popped up from the Chicago rap scene about two years ago - I remember reading a Rolling Stone note about him and being intrigued.  This was actually the first time I ever ventured over to DatPiff to grab a rap mixtape.  If you've never gone on there, you can score so much flipping free rap music, it is insane.  Including Chance's 2013 mixtape, Acid Rap.  And if you want to check him out, you'll need to do that, because Spotify doesn't have anything except for one single with Vic Mensa and then some bad R&B songs that I don't even think have Chance the Rapper on them.  No true album out there that I know of, but the Acid Rap tape is solid stuff.

Most watched on YouTube (12 million+) is "Cocoa Butter Kisses"

His rapping style is off-beat, nasal, and loose, and he uses different beats that are slow and full of strange fills.  He squawks and grunts and sings his own hooks.  Its totally different stuff, but good too.  Here is the second most played on YouTube (7 million), "Juice."

It's smart rap - he weaves good rhymes that are all over the map, but he doesn't stay mired down in the usual rap trope.  From what I can tell, "Cocoa Butter Kisses" is about him missing getting kisses from his mom because now he does drugs and stinks like cigarettes.  "Favorite Song" has a great sample and beat, and sounds more like something that would be good to jam to at a festival.  He's good.  I'm interested to see how this would be, but I'm not sure that these intricate lyrics and beats will translate to the big stage.

Update on 7/1/15:
I just read a (very long) article about Chance's newest project, a jazz (?) collaboration with some old friends.  The album, credited to Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment, and titled "Surf," is available to download for free on iTunes.  I'll check it out and let you know what I think.