New Era White Sox Baseball Cap Designer Chance The Rapper Throws First Pitch at Season Opener, Whilst Debuting "Very Chicago" Austin Vesely-directed "Angels" (Chance Three?)
"I made "Sunday Candy," I'm never going to Hell. I met Kanye West, I'm never going to fail. He said, let's do a good-a** job with Chance three. I hear you gotta sell it to snatch the GRAMMY. Let's make it so free and the bars so hard that there ain't one gosh darn part you can't Tweet," Chance The Rapper ferociously rhymed during his show-stealing verse within Kanye's The Life of Pablo opener "Ultralight Beam." He's of course referring to his long-awaited and currently still untitled Acid Rap (2013) follow-up, since last year's SURF as actually a Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment-helmed project. It's quite a daring, and almost unheard of, feat that Chance The Rapper has garnered so much wide-spread fandom and critical-acclaim without ever having released an album or even single song for purchase; ultimately culminating with Chance's appearance last year on SNL, becoming the first unsigned independent artist to have ever played the late night sketch comedy show... twice! "Chance three" or "his next mixtape," as referred to, and since slightly overlooked, by Esquire is reportedly "due this month," as reported as recently as April 1st. Friday afternoon, @chancetherapper, a devout White Sox fan and recent New Era cap designer, was lucky enough to throw out the ceremonial "first pitch" at the Chicago team's first, snow-capped, home game of the season.
Late Thursday night, albeit rather unexpectedly, Chance The Rapper debuted his Austin Vesely-directed "Angels," which he and fellow Chicagoan Saba previously premiered on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Vesely, a fellow Chicagoan himself, made a conscious attempt to make "Angels" as explicitly Chicago-influenced as possible; "I'd like people to take from it what they want really. It could mean a few different things, but we just wanted it to be very Chicago," Austin Vesely recently told Windy City-based publication Fake Shore Drive. With that said, in addition to Chance and Saba, dancer Ian Eastwood and infamous Flyboy artist Hebru Brantley were additionally recruited to add an underlying Chicago flare. While we all patiently await "Chance three," which is rumored to drop before month's end, I would strongly suggest you check out Chance's Lil B-assisted FREE (Based Freestyles Mixtape), Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment's sprawling 16-track Chance-assisted SURF, and aforementioned SNL-debuted "Somewhere In Paradise" featuring none other than seasoned R&B crooners R. Kelly & Jeremih, as well as Purity Ring beatsmith Corin Roddick.