By now everyone should be familiar with the young Chicago hip-hop artist Chance the Rapper. He’s been seen on various television shows including this past July’s ESPY Awards. What many people may not be familiar with is how the young rapper got his start in the highly-competitive music industry and what he did to make it to the top of the industry in such a fast time.
After meeting at a Hooters restaurant in Chicago with his now manager, Pat Cocoran, Chance who then only had a local buzz in his hometown, decided he wanted to go forward with his music. He enlisted Cocoran to manage all his moves and with this one decision everything began to take off from. After releasing his mixtape 10, Chance began creating a buzz in Chicago and even started getting calls from music industry big wigs like Sylvia Rhone and Antonio “L.A.” Reid. Still, Chance and Cocoran chose to be patient and wait until the perfect deal came along before they signed on the dotted line.
In Chance’s case, patience proved to be a good choice. After selling out a small venue in his hometown with a capacity of 500 people, fellow hip-hop artist/actor Childish Gambino caught wind of Chance’s movement and invited him to join his tour. After happily accepting and joining Childish Gambino on his national tour, Chance’s popularity began to skyrocket even more.
When 2016 rolled around, Chance the Rapper had already established himself in the top tier of the music industry and had done it all without being connected to a major label. So, when it was time to release his new album Coloring Book this past May, the young Chicago native had the deals pouring in. After deciding to go with Apple Music because of their creative freedom, Chance the Rapper made history with Coloring Book when it became the first album to ever debut on the Billboard 200 chart (no. 8) based solely on digital streams. To think that all of Chance the Rapper’s success started with a meeting in a Hooters is pretty incredible. It just goes to show patience in anything you decide to do in life is key!