Chance The Rapper Gives a Lecture at Harvard University

Harvard University's Hiphop Archive & Research Institute held a lecture last week (Apr. 30), where Chance The Rapper was the guest speaker. During a Q&A session with students, the Chi-town spitta talked about things going on in hip-hop and the world at the moment. Chano thinks that Jay Z's concept for Tidal is really good if everything works out and he compares it with other streaming services.

"So the Tidal formula is awesome if it actually works out," he said. "It's a direct fan-to-artist or fan-to-supplier type of connection , but it's not really working that way yet. Everybody that was on the stage was like signed to a label and shit. At the end of the day, all these streaming services are whack as fuck."

He also spoke very about the protest and riots in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray. "I think it's really most important for everybody to be informed, to be connected to the situation," he said. "I always say like there's an act—when to be a hand or to be a voice. You gotta know when your Twitter is stronger or your body actually marches. Sometimes it's either/or, you know? But I don't want to dance around saying this shit is wrong. I think we all know that. It's very hard to watch it happening on a loop."

When asked about Kanye West—who Chance looks up to and was recently spotted in the studio with—he explained why he thinks so highly of 'Ye.

"Every time he speaks, it's all on purpose," Chance said. "I'm very selective about words when I'm writing music, but when I'm just talking, I might say some outlandish shit. Everything he says is on purpose and very calculated, and he feels exactly how he feels. I played like seven shows with him last year but didn't meet him at any of the shows. That shit gets locked down after the show because he's married to the president or something. This one time, Jaden Smith hooked me up and introduced me to Kanye. He's never speaking for someone else. He's just giving you his straight up ideas and his feelings on how the world works and how it should work. I just respect the fuck out of him, and I respect him much more after sitting with him in a room with no one watching and no cameras on and him being like, 'I care this much about how the world works and how your shit goes and I'm going to give you a full blown lecture, really loud, about how this shit works.' And I was like 'yeah, for sure.'"

The Chicago native also spoke about the recording he's most proud of, Soundcloud, misogyny in hip-hop, the connection between hip-hop and violence and a lot more. Read the highlights here and read a recap of the whole visit from the Hiphop Archive here. Chance along with Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment will drop their album Surf sometime soon.

Filed Under: Chance The Rapper, Harvard University

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