Chance the Rapper Paranoia (Prod. Nosaj Thing)

Chicago's Chance The Rapper has built a buzz for himself in the past 16 months with his deft lyricism and melodic inflections. His latest tape, Acid Rap, seems to have cemented him as an up-and-coming rapper with commercial promise. I've yet to do my due diligence on young Chance but even a surface skim shows substance. It's nice to see a young cat making an attempt at being creative without rehashing the past completely.

"Paranoia," a bonus track on Acid Rap, is a collaboration with beat-scene wonderkid Nosaj Thing -- and it's pretty amazing. I hope the rest of the tape is as good. Over a brooding, slumping beat Chance starts and stops, going from an exhausted sing-song to a feverish urgency and back. It's also really interesting to listen to the track in the context of a young person from Chicago rapping about his hometown, a city that has been plagued with extreme levels of youth violence for years.

It's come out in interviews and articles that Chance's latest tape was pretty self explanatory: many of the raps where recorded on acid. He goes a bit further to explain that his process would sometimes include freestyling on acid as a way to establish the skeleton of his tracks before fine-tuning them. I love this but I hope it doesn't lead shittier rappers to think they can snort heroin and make some dope tracks.