Steve 'Flash' JuonPatrick was the first to bust open Chance The Rapper on RR, but the Chicago emcee’s cherry to the mainstream was the “10 Day” mixtape. Widely available from your favorite no dollar download resources (though I personally prefer DatPiff), Chance apparently named the album after the fact he was serving a ten day suspension from Jones College Prep High School. Since Jones is a school known academic excellence and (as evidenced by the name) preparing its students for collegiate careers, it’s likely that even a minor infraction would be taken seriously. I can only imagine that if he had been caught using the language he does on the album itself, he probably would have been expelled outright. Take “Windows” for example:
“This for every math class that I ever had
So fuck you if I failed, and fuck you if I passed!
For shitty summaries and bummers in the past
Cause some of our teachers act as if summer was for class
And some of us is seein summer, some of us have passed
Some of us ain’t seein summer, some of us who passed
So I’m just glad to say I’m sippin rum up out a glass
Cause some of us is only sippin some up off the grav’
And Heaven’s gates look a lot like prison from the ave
We on the ground yellin ‘Get my nigga back!'”
Chance was obviously well connected even at this early point in his career in 2012. Chuck Inglish from The Cool Kids produced “U Got Me Fucked Up,” giving away a beat dope enough to sell, although Chance no doubt gave him bars on a project right back quid pro quo. Asher Roth favorites Blended Babies laced the song “Family” featuring Sulaiman and Vic Mensa. The songs without any credits are just as enjoyable though, such as the unapologetic “Fuck You Tahm Bout” – so good in fact that Chance made a music video for it.
Pretty ballsy decision to invest that kind of time and money in a song from an album that myth holds was recorded on a ten day suspension. That makes me think some of the story may be a bit exaggerated – this album sounds too clean and that video looks too serious for “10 Day” to just be a random way for Chance to fill time until he could Rodney Dangerfield his way back to school. He even has a radio friendly song in “Hey Ma” with Lili K and Peter CottonTale, which would only need the smallest amount of censoring for it to blow up – or at least small compared to an A$AP Rocky song like “Fuckin’ Problem.”
“I said ‘Hey Ma’, don’t go stretching your wallet
These niggas gotta pay me for taking a year from college
Go on get ya nails polished, stylist for your eyelids
And a pilot for your mileage for them frequent flights to your island
Ms. Brown and Ms. Pollack, little boy done grown up
Little voice done blown up, middle-class that bonus
Hey Ma, hey momma Jan; God just gave me another chance
Rod just gave me another line, probably gave me another fan
7-7-3, Oh, since Kanye was a three-old
Down the street from D. Rose, was practicing his free-throws
Shout out to that Gulf Shrimp, shout out to King Gyro
Shout out that Ms. Moody, auntie Toni them my heroes”
It’s really not a surprise that Chance The Rapper started blowing up after this, and that “10 Day” quickly amassed “gold” DatPiff status (over 100,000 downloads). At this point there’s probably a bidding war amongst major labels over who can offer Chancelor Bennett the best deal – he’s only 20 and has more buzz than many rappers who have been hustling for a decade or more. In fact considering his affection for Kanye (he says “The College Dropout” was the first rap album he ever bought) GOOD Music ought to try to snap him up with the quickness.