“Yesterday, I left my wallet at home,” says Chancelor Bennett, aka Chance the Rapper. It’s 9 p.m. on a fall evening at a Chicago recording studio, and he and his bandmates are packing up for the night. Four days from now, they will put on their biggest show of the year, at the city’s United Center.
Bennett sits next to me in high-waisted track pants and a fitted tee. He admits to feeling a little overwhelmed by having a new baby at home and a new tour to prepare for, and yesterday was proof. He had taken his 4-year-old daughter, Kensli, to Dunkin’ for a rare treat before school. It was the first day all week that he had been able to do morning drop-off, and he’d wanted it to feel special. She picked out a glistening, sprinkle-topped chocolate doughnut, and he realized his pocket was empty.
“It’s just a crazy letdown for a child,” he says, shaking his head, clearly still unable to forgive himself. Luckily, another customer was more than happy to pick up the tab—in exchange for a photo with Chance the Rapper.
The entire span of 2019, in fact, has been rather frenzied for the 26-year-old, who made the unthinkable choice several years ago to eschew record deals and give his music away for free. He’s garnered more than 1.5 billion streams on SoundCloud since 2012, and he’s earned millions of dollars in revenue, through live shows, merchandise, and endorsements instead. Last winter, he filmed six episodes of Rhythm and Flow, a Netflix talent competition that he hosts alongside Cardi B, T.I., and a slew of R&B royalty, which debuted in October. In March, he celebrated his wedding to longtime girlfriend Kirsten Corley, a childhood behavioral therapist and Kensli’s mother. In July, he released The Big Day, his first official full “album” (previously, he had released three “mixtapes”—the last of which snatched three Grammys), which became a Billboard No. 2 hit. He made his feature-film debut in July with a cameo in Disney’s The Lion King remake. In October, he hosted Saturday Night Live for the second time, also serving as musical guest. During all of this, he was also helping to run SocialWorks, the nonprofit he founded in 2016 that works to improve the lives of youth in Chicago through arts education, mental health services, warm-clothing drives, and more. Bennett has donated $2 million of his own money to SocialWorks’ efforts—including $1 million to Chicago Public Schools and $1 million to Chicago mental health initiatives.
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