Chance The Rapper’s Open Mike teen night in Chicago is rapidly becoming the place to be due to his endless list of surprise special guests and giveaways, but the latest might be the biggest yet. Kanye West put in an appearance with his young protege to announce that the junior rapper has not only convinced Kanye to complete work on the long-awaited album, Good Ass Job, but that Ye is also returning to Chicago and “never leaving again.”
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The announcement brought raucous cheers from the assembled audience, who no doubt felt a surge of hometown pride on hearing that one of their city’s most decorated citizens is coming back home. As it happens, Chance The Rapper did the same thing prior to the release of his groundbreaking third mixtape, Coloring Book, which he made with the help and mentorship of Kanye. Chance was very open on the tape and in its promotion cycle, revealing how his relocation to Los Angeles to fit in better with the rap scene resulted in struggles with depression and addiction — the same sort of struggles Kanye has recently opened up about that led to his much-publicized onstage breakdown during 2016’s The Life Of Pablo tour.
This might just be the greatest news any Chicago resident could receive, short of the Bulls suddenly trading for Kevin Durant or Barack Obama becoming mayor. After all, for anyone who missed the “Old Kanye,” this surely represents a step toward bringing that dream to reality. At the very least, with Kanye’s energy directed more toward production these days, a Kanye West-produced, super soulful, seven-track offering from Chance The Rapper seems inevitable, and that’s a GOOD thing indeed.
