20. Chance The Rapper - “Summer Friends”
I woke up this morning to read that there had been 60 gun-related deaths in Chicago over the weekend. That’s absurd, or at least it is to a suburb-raised white boy like myself, but sadly, while on the extreme side, such violence is not all that abnormal for many POC growing up within South Chicago. I can’t even fathom what that must be like. Even attempting to do so just gets muddled within the blurs of my imagination because I don’t even have the materials within my mind with which to truly empathize. I definitely feel a sense of sadness, anger, and an inept sort of helplessness, but it’s all abstract. I can’t truly understand the cycle and struggle that gives birth to such a reality. I don’t know (and never will know) the sense of resilience, the grit, the determination, the pain, the sadness, the hopelessness, and the strength that must come with every day of life.
All I have is this song – a little primary source window into a world so foreign to me that I can’t even properly imagine or empathize with what it is like. The Chicago I described above is the Chicago Chance grew up within, and he describes it beautifully within this song. However, he doesn’t describe it from the perspective were used to – the overly macho braggadocio of gangsters spitting violence-filled lines, rather he portrays it from a sort of nostalgic and introspective haze. He describes the innocence of his childhood being haunted by the gun violence of summer nights. He describes his classmates vanishing from class, being pulled away from their potential to become another statistic. He describes the plight of living in a world so transient, where everything is in motion and there’s no real sense of security or comfort, only survival and defensiveness, and acting first out of fear that others will act against you.
It’s a world shaped by the dominant culture, deprived of comfort and opportunity out of the hope that it will keep those within stagnate or dead. It’s the oppression of structural racism, and yet, despite all the negativity Chance has transcended. He’s emerged with an amount of character most of us only dream of, and now he can tell his story. He can provide a narrative silenced by sensationalized news reports, statistics, and mainstream record label content. He can humanize Chicago and the struggle faced by those trying to live life and succeed within the cross hairs of extreme violence. It’s a story worth listening to, especially for those of us like me who often struggle to even begin to comprehend the madness that is modern day racism in America.
