Photo Recap: Chance The Rapper Live - A Real Acid Trip - RESPECT.

Photograph by Julia Schur

Neon lights are flashing, Chance’s face is projected onto the walls, and an army of enthusiastic twenty year olds are smiling, eagerly waiting for Chance to make his grand entrance: Welcome to the Social Experiment Tour.

Chance has been blowing up ever since the release of his second mixtape, Acid Rap. He recently toured with some of the greatest names in hip-hop, including Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Macklemore and Mac Miller. Chance shocke the world when Acid Rap cracked the Heatseekers Albums chart. The surprising part? Acid Rap was never for sale. Yes, Chance The Rapper is the one an only man able to sell CDs right now without even trying!

On October 29^th and 30^th the Chance performed three sold out shows on the iconic SOBs stage. After an hour of waiting…

… The lights dimmed down, and Chance bolted onto the stage while “Good Ass Intro” (Acid Rap‘s opening track) started playing. After performing some of his biggest hits, Chance abruptly left the stage. The audience was confused. “You got to be kidding me,” said an audience member. Little did we know, “The Social Experiment” was just beginning. Donnie Trumpet, a multi-talented musician, part of Chance’s crew, arrived on stage along with a keyboard player and a drummer. The band gave a new twist to Chance’s music, playing a particularly memorable version of “Paranoia.” The track reached new heights of perfection: it was crisp, high in emotion and well rehearsed.

Critics have praised Chance’s show for being “full of energy” a “new mile-stone in Chance’s career, ” and while his first stop in New York certainly was both of those things, Chance was still not a hundred percent successful in connecting with his audience. His charismatic personality did not shine through during his set as much as we would have hoped. Chance is an undeniably talented artist, and a real-life cartoon, but only as long as the music is playing. The second the music stopped playing, he only managed to mumble a few variations of “I love you guys thanks for coming,” against his tightly held mic. Even though we appreciate his kind words, his sheepish tone was not convincing. With time, Chance will become more comfortable with conversing with his audience.