Acid Rap Album Review

By: Michael Hinman

In the mixtape Acid Rap, Chancelor Bennett, otherwise known as Chance the Rapper, utilizes a playful tone while packing his lyrics with meaning that cover a wide variety of topics from the crime problem in Chicago to his own childhood nostalgia. In addition to discussing the different elements seen throughout the mixtape, I will draw upon class readings and concepts to adequately describe Bennett’s critique of other musicians’ tendencies to pander to larger audiences.

From start to finish, Acid Rap draws in audiences with its unique combination of musical influences while delivering impressive amounts of meaning and references through its lyricism. Elements of the unique music style ‘acid jazz’ can be heard throughout the mixtape, which is characteristic of combining several types of music such as funk, soul jazz, and disco. This form of music is interesting in that most of the types of music described in the African American stream in class are represented, and perhaps this type of music is carrying on the tradition of revolutionary new music. Bennett’s individualistic style is true to the foundations of hip hop and rap music which, according to Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman in “American Popular Music”, was born from musicians that were attempting to “[develop] their personal styles” (Starr and Waterman, 83). Acid Rap is truly a unique listening experience, and its reliance on acid jazz makes its influences clear.

The first track on the mixtape, appropriately named “Good Ass Into” starts the set off well with lyrics that flow seamlessly and paint a portrait of who Bennett is now and what the audience can expect from the mixtape. Following the release of his previous breakout mixtape 10 Day which he wrote during a ten day high school suspension, Bennett has gained significant popularity among his community and peers which he alludes to in lines such as “How many lab partners have I fucked since I got suspended?” in which he is most likely referencing his high school classmates. Bennett is still young and relatively inexperienced but there is no sense of modesty in lines such as “This your favorite fucking album, I ain’t even fucking done”. Moving on in the mixtape, Bennett explores a variety of topics. Most of the references are lighthearted such as in “Cocoa Butter Kisses” when he raps “Used to like orange cassette tapes with Timmy, Tommy, and Chuckie”, referencing characters from Nickelodeon shows of his childhood and plays on nostalgic elements despite his young age. Several times throughout the album he uses personal experience to reference the crime issue in Chicago. In the song “Juice”, Bennett raps “I ain’t really been myself since Rod passed” and references his childhood friend that was stabbed to death in front of him. In the final song of the mixtape titled “Everything’s Good (Good Ass Outro)”, Bennett begins by playing a touching telephone conversation between him and his father to which they say goodbye with “Thank you, love you” and “Alright, son. Love you too, take care”. This portion of the song contrasts with the rest of the mixtape in that it is not rapped at all. It is an incredibly heartfelt phone call that sets up the laid-back tone for the ending of the album and delivers a message of family love which is often lacking from music of this genera.

There are several important messages in Acid Rap, but the one Bennett is most clearly trying to leave his audience with is individuality and self-expression in ways that are true to oneself rather than in an attempt to gain fame. Bennett delivers this message in many sections of the mixtape, both implicitly and explicitly. In the song “Good Ass Intro”, Bennett raps “Twerk, twerk, merge, swerve, dang, pick a lane” and discretely bashes on other artists that do outrageous and out of character things for attention. By telling them to “pick a lane”, he is stressing the importance of finding what you’re good at and letting the audience come in time. In the article “Why We Fight About Pop Music”, Ann powers argues of those in the pop industry that “major players in creating mainstream pop don’t care about integrity” (Powers, Part 3) and they are instead only “interested in making money” (Powers, Part 3). While wanting to make money in the music industry is not an inherently negative trait, Bennett makes a good point that when they sacrifice the critical nuances of making music for more media attention and neglect to add meaning to their songs in favor of simplistic crowd pleasers, it degrades the value and integrity of the art. While the depth and artistry delivered in Acid Rap tears down the argument behind rockism, popular artists begin to lose their evidence for the existence of poptimism when they neglect the important artistic elements. History has proven that Bennett’s method of honest creation over flash wins out in the end. In addition to his own success, further proof can be found in the article “Music in the Shadow of Doubt”, in which Eric Weisbard writes about an album by Metallica which “plodded ahead…decisively” (Weisbard, 2), beating out a less meaningful album by Shania Twain.

Laced with important messages and playful references, Acid Rap by the Chance the Rapper is not only a joy to listen to, but delivers a critical example for future musicians to aspire.

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18105-chance-the-rapper-acid-rap/

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/review-the-rolling-stones-blue-and-lonesome-w453332

 

Works Cited

“Chance The Rapper (Ft. BJ The Chicago Kid, J.P. Floyd, Kiara Lanier, Lili K., Peter Cottontale & Will Miller) – Good Ass Intro.” Genius, 30 Apr. 2013, genius.com/Chance-the-rapper-good-ass-intro-lyrics.

Starr and Waterman, Hip-Hop: The “Rapper’s Delight” American Popular Music (2008) online access at UW Libraries http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/gpo1267/american-popular-music.pdf

Weisbard, Eric, “Introduction.” Pop When the World Falls Apart: Music in the Shadow of Doubt (Duke 2012) (PDF)

Weiss, Jeff. “Chance the Rapper: Acid Rap.” Pitchfork, Pitchfork, 7 May 2013,

pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18105-chance-the-rapper-acid-rap/.

Wilson, Carl, and Ann Powers. “Why We Fight About Pop Music.” NPR, NPR, 15 Apr. 2014,

http://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2014/04/15/301440765/why-we-fight-about-pop-music.