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Chance The Rapper cancels ‘Big Day’ tour

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If you were one of the few who were desperate to see Chance’s The Big Day album performed live, then you’ll have to wait until at least next year.

Chance The Rapper had a pretty rough year, at least as far as credibility is concerned.

His debut album The Big Day went down like a lead balloon with fans and critics; corny bars, oddly watered down pop beats, and an over infatuation with his wife lead to the project being clowned all over social media. It broke his run of consistently stellar work, and shifted his reputation from industry darling to a pop sell-out.

Now, six months after its release, Chance has announced that he’ll be cancelling the tour that was meant to accompany the album – to the disappointment of fans around the world. Well, the ones who bought tickets, at least.

Why has Chance put the brakes on his tour?

He decided to break the news on Instagram with a lengthy captioned post, promising fans that he’d be back better than ever in 2020 with a reworked show. This comes after he initially postponed the ‘Big Day’ tour for three months following the birth of his second daughter.

The biggest and most obvious reason for this sudden change of plans is most likely The Big Day’s overwhelming negative reception. Many on Reddit have been speculating that the tour’s ticket sales weren’t as lucrative as first hoped, pointing out that Chance was offering buy-one-get-one-free ticket offers for Black Friday, a move that’s mostly unheard of for someone of his calibre.

While one project probably isn’t enough to totally dismantle an artist’s legacy, it is enough to dent or damage projected sales for an upcoming tour, especially as you’ll mostly be playing songs from that record. Most people probably don’t want to fork out big money to see ‘Hot Shower’ performed live. Listen to the song below and you’ll see what I mean.

Chance has also faced a bit of a backlash from fans for a seemingly arrogant attitude toward his own status in the industry, calling himself one of the top five rappers ‘of all time’ earlier this year. He’s managed to garner a reputation of slightly deluded arrogance over 2019, a significant departure from his earlier, more appealing underdog image.

What’s next for Chance’s music and career?

It’s likely that we’ll be hearing fresh music from Chance again next year as he takes a break from the spotlight and potentially rethinks his image. Compared to other artists within the Chicago rap scene such as SABA, Noname, and Smino, it feels pretty obvious that Chance hasn’t been perfecting his craft the way his contemporaries have. He’s got some catching up to do, and some time out might do his legacy and music career a favour in the long run.

Even though The Big Day was a bit of a hot mess, Chance released a bunch of singles a year beforehand that were actually quite good. I’d imagine that we’ll likely see a similar pattern next year, with a few singles thrown out here and there that’re better received by the hip-hop crowd.

It’s also likely that the ‘reworked shows’ for 2020 will have more of an emphasis on Chance’s discography as a whole rather than just The Big Day, which isn’t in the same league as his three earlier mixtapes. Expect the setlists to have a lot more stuff from Acid Rap and Colouring Book than originally planned.

All in all, this definitely isn’t the end of the road for Chance, nor is his artistic credibility so far gone that there’s no way back. A return to form with a fresh, decent mixtape could easily win his old fans over.

This isn’t the first time an artists overestimated their ability to push tickets, either. T-Pain recently had to cancel his tour over low ticket sales and was honest with fans about the mismanagement of the planned shows – even artists such as Rihanna and Kanye have performed to half-filled stadiums in the past. Chance can bounce back, it’s more a question of when rather than if.

And please, for the love of God, keep ‘Hot Shower’ confined to Tik Tok and dodgy memes for the rest of time.

 

Music Editor London, UK

I’m Charlie (He/Him), the Editor In Chief at Thred. I studied English at the University of Birmingham and as a music and gaming enthusiast, I’m a nerd for pop culture. You can find me curating playlists, designing article headline images, and sipping cider on a Thursday. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.

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