What’s most amazing about Acid Rap isn’t Chance’s talent, but how eagerly he employs it. There’s hardly a track where he isn’t pushing or testing himself, or somehow going out of his way to dazzle with torrential wordplay or euphoric, dopamine-pumped production.
It's hard to listen to Acid Rap and not venture back to a time when rap was new and exciting and, for some, forbidden—a time of discovery and a time when everything was fresh.
Even in these darker and more earnest moments, it's never difficult to sense the love of craft that went into Acid Rap's construction, and it's because of this that Acid Rap is, ultimately, a fundamentally joyful record.
It is Chance’s ability to transition fluidly between self-imaginings that makes him such an impressive and likeable rapper. It’s also part of what will make Acid Rap one of the major hip-hop releases of this year.
Chance’s Acid Rap is a triumph of meditative moments, open-ended quests, and brass flares. The hooks are more jabs than uppercuts. None will probably bang in a club, but most will make sense live, as chanted back by a thousand fans.
Acid Rap is the summer action blockbuster of mixtapes, where the audience need not dig much deeper than the surface to enjoy the best of what the production has to offer.
Where the harsh, cold production of drill echoes the harsh, cold sentiments, Chance’s voice and the multi-faceted production are all about change, examining any little moment that might provide some fun and relief.
As a portrait of a city, and a person, Acid Rap is about as good – and as honest – as they come.
At just 19, aspiring to compete with such ambitious rap visionaries, and mostly succeeding, is an impressive feat.
Acid Rap’s biggest victory is living up to it’s own hype and Chance’s careful packaging of his artistry.
It’s the density of wit, ideas, and verbal invention that makes this one of the year’s defining hip-hop releases.
Like Chief Keef, Chance the Rapper hails from Chicago’s South Side, but lyrically and production-wise Acid Rap has more in common with Kanye West’s soulful debut, The College Dropout.
Though it’s not a perfect collection of songs, as a coming-out party Acid Rap is pretty impressive.
Chance’s Acid Rap largely sticks to a woozy, friendly mood, which only makes the sudden dips into melancholia and terror all that much more effective.
Acid Rap succeeds for all the right reasons a mixtape should, finely balancing an idiosyncratic style, taught rhymes, emotional sincerity and rich production.
Chicago rapper and singer Chance The Rapper comes through with a more ambitious mixtape with Acid Rap, improving upon his production, hooks, and recording quality.
Thanks to @ThePurpleIdiot for this recommendation.
Acid Rap is the 2nd mixtape from Chance the Rapper and was released in April 2013. It was recorded during 2012-13 at Soundscape, Force One, Seven & Classick in Chicago.
Chance admitted that he used LSD during the production of this mixtape, saying "There was a lot of acid involved in Acid Rap. I mean, it wasn't too much... I'd say it was about 30 to 40% acid... more so 30% acid."
I have to admit, I love the Jazz styled ... read more
I've never heard a Chance album before, other than maybe a couple parts of "The Big Day", I had no clue what to expect from this album, considering I was told this and his Big Day fiasco were very different in terms of sound.
This was a really fun tape. While Chance on here is a bit of a flawed artist in a couple areas, I feel his genuiness on songs like "Cocoa Butter Kisses" and "Acid Rain". comes through and makes him a really loveable character across this ... read more
Thanks to @Darkshark for the rec! (Go follow this person now)
https://www.albumoftheyear.org/user/darkshark/
This man literally used LSD(acid) to make Acid Rap Lmao.
It's jazz inspirations is a cool aspect of it.
I was originally strayed away from Chance because of all the negative things I heard of him, but to be honest his stuff is not that bad. He looks hella goofy in the cover. I love it.
Feels uncreative in production, creating too bare a landscape for Chances insanely corny moments. Some great tracks undeniably, but it’s just not the classic so many treat it as.
The big day if it was good and not the big day. The best song on here is Cocoa Butter Kisses the worst song on here is Nana.
Great album! Not a single bad track on here. Very positive vibe. Although the positivity is the only real substance on this.
Fav Track: Cocoa Butter Kisses
Least Fav Track: Smoke Again
1 | Good Ass Intro 3:59 feat. BJ the Chicago Kid | 87 |
2 | Pusha Man 2:19 feat. Nate Fox | 82 |
3 | Paranoia 4:35 feat. Lili K, Nosaj Thing | 83 |
4 | Cocoa Butter Kisses 5:07 | 92 |
5 | Juice 3:35 | 84 |
6 | Lost 3:04 feat. Noname | 80 |
7 | Everybody's Something 4:36 feat. Saba, BJ the Chicago Kid | 78 |
8 | Interlude (That's Love) 2:29 | 80 |
9 | Favorite Song 3:05 feat. Childish Gambino | 82 |
10 | Nana 3:20 feat. Action Bronson | 61 |
11 | Smoke Again 4:32 feat. Ab-Soul | 72 |
12 | Acid Rain 3:36 | 87 |
13 | Chain Smoker 3:30 | 82 |
14 | Everything's Good (Good Ass Outro) 5:33 | 82 |
#1 | / | The 405 |
#2 | / | Spin |
#4 | / | Complex |
#5 | / | Dazed |
#5 | / | Pigeons & Planes |
#7 | / | Pretty Much Amazing |
#10 | / | Cokemachineglow |
#10 | / | Consequence of Sound |
#12 | / | Pitchfork |
#13 | / | FasterLouder |