For a lot of Chance The Rapper fans, the 2013 mixtape Acid Rap was their introduction to the now-superstar musician. For those folks and many others, today brought great news: For the first time, the record (as well as his 2012 mixtape 10 Day) is now available on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. That’s wonderful, but it must be noted that the complete album isn’t actually on there, as the original version of standout track “Juice” is nowhere to be found.
Instead, the version of “Juice” featured on the streaming version of Acid Rap is a 30-second track that contains a message from Chance. He says that he couldn’t clear the song (which features a sample of Donny Hathaway’s “Jealous Guy”), but that streaming the 30-second replacement track would benefit his SocialWorks non-profit organization: “Hey, so I really wanted ‘Juice’ to be on the mixtape, but I couldn’t get it cleared in time. F*ck. Every time you play this track all the way through, all the streaming proceeds go directly to SocialWorks, so run this back and play it all the way through. Again, I really appreciate you guys being here since day one, and the album is coming real soon.”
Chance also spoke with Apple Music’s Beats 1 host Nadeska Alexis about why he decided to put the mixtapes on streaming services now, and he said:
“I think it’s just time for the access to be real access. That’s always what I’ve been about is I think the reason why I wanted those songs to be on Soundcloud and on Datpiff at the time was because I wanted everyone to have access to it and I don’t like having things be blocked by the sale. At that time, the climate was different. Soundcloud was the main streaming service. There weren’t the official DSPs and stuff. Now the same thing that I was trying to do to gain access has become kind of like a barrier.
I think it was dope that we all got to live through a time that we can remember when Acid Rap wasn’t everywhere and when 10 Day wasn’t everywhere. I think I’ve just grown to a point where those things have been for me what they’ve been and for so many other people what they’ve been and now I think it’s just time for more people to hear it and for people that grew up with it to have a little time to reminisce before the album drops — if you’re a fan, a lot of people that were fans before 10 Day, when it was the 5 Day CD that I was working around passing around, a lot of people feel like I’m invested in their lives because of a song that meant something to them at a time or means something to them now that I have invested in them.
But they’ve been invested in me for a long, long time and I want them to be able to access that at any time and in a place where now they can feel like they’re purchasing a piece of music that I made just for them and I’ve been working on this not just in the last couple years but since I first found out I was going to be a rapper.”
