It’s been quite some time since we’ve heard from Chicago artist Chance The Rapper. The Grammy Award winner used to be everywhere: Kit Kat commercials, Saturday Night Live, and even a Wild ‘N Out special centered solely around a good-natured rivalry between him and Nick Cannon. At one point, he was even said to be one of the highest-paid rappers in the world. Is it true?
Early Life
Born in Chicago on April 16th, 1993, Chance The Rapper⏤whose real name is Chancelor Jonathan Bennett⏤started pursuing rap in sixth grade after hearing fellow Chicago rapper Kanye West on the radio. Unlike many of his hip-hop peers, Chance’s backstory was a drastic departure from the usual ghetto narrative. First of all, his parents were middle-class workers; his mother worked for the Illinois Attorney General and his father was once an aide to Barack Obama during his run in the Senate. Thanks to their occupations, the family could even afford to send Chance to a college-prep-style high school. It was here that Chance found his calling.
In his senior year of high school, Chance was suspended for 10 days for smoking marijuana. With nothing to do but sit at home, Chance started to record his first mixtape in 2011. He then released the single “Windows” later that year in December. He went on to release the full mixtape 10 Day on April 3rd, 2012.
The Beginning Of A Milestone Career
Chance returned a year later with his second mixtape, Acid Rap, in 2013 and reached #63 on the US R&B and Hip Hop charts. Even though he didn’t rank high on the charts, the mixtape was still well-received by critics and nominated at the 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards. It was so well-received that it was included on several lists for the 50 best albums of 2013, some of which included Rolling Stone and NPR.
It would be another three years before Chance released his third mixtape, Coloring Book, on May 12th, 2016. Thanks to his prior hard work and steadily-growing buzz, Chance was able to stream the project exclusively on Apple Music and the mixtape saw impressive numbers as it was streamed over 57.3 million times, which led it to debut at #8 on the Billboard charts.
The mixtape would set a couple of important milestones for Chance. Not only was Coloring Book the first album ever to chart solely based on streams, but it also marked Chance’s first successful project as a completely independent artist. In addition, the album led to Chance’s first world tour in 2016, and by 2017, he was performing at the Grammy Awards, where he went on to receive seven nominations and win three Grammys for Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance, and Best Rap Album.
At The Height Of His Career
For a while, Chance focused on touring and TV appearances. Along the way, he also had features with a list of well-known artists including Jeremiah, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, Young Thug, Future, and even Madonna. The rapper then returned to finally release his debut studio album The Big Day in July of 2019. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts, earning him his first #2 spot on the charts since his career began.
Since then, Chance has been very active in using his success to help better his hometown. In 2017, he donated $1 million to Chicago Public Schools and even purchased a local newspaper called The Chicagoist. He even owns a nonprofit organization called SocialWorks that focuses on creating new programs for Chicago-area residents. With all these ventures and only one album in his discography, where is Chance getting the money to take care of it all? The answer may surprise you.
Chance The Rapper’s Income Streams
According to Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Chance barely gets any money from his streams. Artists are paid between $0.006 and $0.0084 for every stream, so even with millions of plays, Chance is not necessarily taking in loads of cash, and as an independent artist, he doesn’t get the luxury of receiving cash bonuses from a label if he has a good year. This means that how he earns money rests solely on his shoulders. Despite that, Chance still finds ways to make it work.
“I make money from touring and selling merchandise, and I honestly believe if you put effort into something, and you execute properly, you don’t necessarily have to go through the traditional ways,” he said in an interview with Vanity Fair.
With the numbers that today’s artists make from touring, it makes perfect sense. His Be Encouraged tour earned him $500,000 in ticket sales per night, which equals up to $1 million every two days. So basically, Chance can easily make a cool $6 million in one state alone for a few weeks of touring.
Then there are the endorsements. During the course of his career, Chance has inked ad campaign deals with several big-name companies like H&M, Nike, and of course, Kit Kat. He’s even designed a line of limited hats for the Chicago White Sox that saw impressive sales after selling out within minutes.
So How Much Is Chance The Rapper Worth Now?
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Chance The Rapper is currently worth $25 million. All in all, that’s not too shabby for an independent artist who’s only put out one studio album so far. At 28 years old, Chance still has a lot of time left in his music career to release more projects, which are sure to bring in more endorsements. He’s also begun to explore acting and has several upcoming projects that he’s slated to appear in. Now that venues are beginning to open back up again, Chance will definitely be set to increase his net worth in the next few years.