Chance The Rapper hit the jackpot in February 2016 when he was featured on his idol Kanye West’sThe Life of Pablo album, but his verse didn’t come without a few issues.
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In an interview celebrating the five-year anniversary of Coloring Book, Chance The Rapper revealed Kanye West wasn’t a fan of his Grammy lyrics. On the song, he raps, “I met Kanye West, I’m never going to fail/He said, ‘Let’s do a good ass job with ‘Chance 3’/I hear you gotta sell it to snatch the Grammy.'”
“I rapped on Kanye’s shit right before it came out that I was working on these three Grammys, and I was like, ‘If I keep rapping like that, and just saying shit’s gonna happen, that’s just gonna happen,'” he told the Grammys. “And it started happening. Kanye didn’t want me to say that [line] on that song. And I had to go back and forth with him about keeping my line on there.”
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Chance’s projects weren’t eligible for the Grammys until June 2016, when the Recording Academy made changes allowing streaming-only albums. Coloring Book went on to win HipHopDX‘s 2016 Album Of The Year and Best Rap Album at the 2017 Grammy Awards, becoming the first streaming-only album to win a Grammy.
Chance The Rapper spoke more about the opportunity to work with Kanye West and manifesting the whole thing.
“Just being in a position to rap [with] the person who probably is the reason I became a rapper—to be able to produce and write and to be featured on the intro, the first real rap verse you hear on the album, was crazy to me,” he said. “I was, at that time, speaking it into existence like, ‘Kanye gonna hit us up soon. You gonna be working with ‘Ye soon.’ And when that happened, I had to keep doing that. I had to keep being like, ‘I’m gonna just say what’s gonna happen.'”
No, Producer Mike Dean Didn't 'Quit' Working On Kanye West's 'Donda' Album
In January 2021, footage from a leaked Donda documentary surfaced showing Kanye West screaming at Chance The Rapper in the studio.
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Dame Dash said in the clip, “My thing was just get rid of the people who are triggering him, just get ’em out of here and let’s just have fun being creative. So Kanye is finishing his album and there’s people around. Chance, honestly, because of what he was reading, he came through just to check Kanye. You know, Kanye deals with his issues at all times. They got into it, but they worked it out.”
