Last week, in my ongoing quest to understand what the young people are doing these days, I took advantage of an offer to get two tickets in the handicapped section for a Taste of Chicago concert.
The bands are The Roots (who I know of thanks to QuestLove) and someone called Donnie Trumpet, who I’d never heard of. I looked up Donnie Trumpet, checked out a You Tube video and he sounded pretty cool. Interesting — almost pretty — music.
Mike said he’d come along. We bought two tickets.
This morning when Mike checked out the Chicago Tribune web site he saw this big news:
Chance The Rapper announced that he will be opening up for The Roots on Wednesday along with his friend Donnie Trumpet.
I. Love. Chance.
He first charmed me when I turned on the kitchen radio on a lazy Saturday morning last summer . There he was, a guest on NPR’s Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me during a live taping of the show at Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. Chance was sweet, smart, very, very funny and was wearing one of his grandmother’s favorite yellow cardigans. Two young woman from the audience stormed the stage. I would have held on and jumped up there, too, if I’d been with them
in the audience.
I heard him on Saturday Night Live and fell in love all over again. and now I hear him every time Mike has a White Sox game on TV (and that’s a lot of times). Chance is a fan, and he narrates the White Sox 2016 promotion videos, which appear before games, and also run as TV commercials.
More from a story in Chicago’s RedEye.
And you can view the Chance videos by clicking on the image below.
Fans get a rush out of the video. His monologue tells of the city’s rise and being “built upon the muscles of broad shoulders and strong backs.”
The speech is set against a backdrop of Sox highlights and snippets of Chicagoans going about our everyday work lives.
“To make it in Chicago, there’s one thing we’d better be able to do,” he says. “Step up.”
I’m steppin’ up tonight.
Now, what do I wear?
What to wear? Black leather bustier, of course!
Rats. Mine is at the cleaners.
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Hi Beth and Mike,
Great review. I believe that Chance went to Jones H.S. Also, I think he was a member of Young Chicago Authors, which is still going strong.
Ciao for now!
Carolina
I think he recognized me in the audience — I walk by Jones (a Chicago public High School two blocks away from our apartment) every day with my Seeing Eye dog…!
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Hope you are wearing something White Sox related to catch his attention! Enjoy!! And looking forward to hearing all about it.
Mike had his White Sox hat on, of course, and he told me Chance had his special version of a White Sox cap on –not exactly sure what that is..
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Beth! I know the guy who does Chance’s light show and visual art on his tours. And Chance is indeed a great guy all around– for Chicago, for young people, for music, for the world. I think you and Chance should meet someday… who know what you two could come up with! 🙂 🙂 🙂 smile smile smile!
You know, the more I let out about my crush on Chance, the more people I discover who have a connection to him. Paris, a waiter at Hackney’s, lives on the South Side and is a DJ when she’s not waiting tables. She’s about Chance’s age and has been at parties with him for years. Carolina, above, just let me know that Chance went to Jones Prep, our local Chicago Public High School., The sidewalk in front of that school (where the kids hang out before they get on the red line) is a regular walking route for Whitney and me. One of the workers at Printers Row Wine Shop on our block lived I the dorm next to Jones when he was attending Columbia College and knows Chance well. And now you know the guy who does Chance’s light show and visual art on his tours, Carli!
All of you speak well of him, and others have said exactly what you did here: he is a great representative of the “real” Chicago.
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