Earlier this week, Chance The Rapper made history as the artist brought home three Grammys without having sold a single record. The rapper’s success proves that even without adhering to the music industry’s traditional model, there’s a possibility for mavericks like him to succeed.
Chance, whose real name is Chancellor Johnathan Bennett, became the first artist to win a Grammy without selling physical copies of his music. The 23-year-old won Best New Artist, Best Rap Album, and Best Rap Performance. His best rap album award for “Coloring Book” is all the more impressive as Kanye West’s “The Life of Pablo” and Drake’s “Views” were also nominated in the category.
Chance The Rapper is known in the industry for remaining unsigned to any record label and for streaming his songs online for free. The rapper believes that if a person does his best on anything and executes it well, then there’s no need to follow what everyone else is doing.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Chance said that after making his second mixtape “Acid Rap” and giving it away online, his plan was to sign with a label and figure out what to do from there. However, upon meeting with the three major labels, he realized that his strength “was being able to offer my best work to people without any limit on it.”
“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.
According to Quartz Media, among the merchandise that Chance sells is the “3” hats that he’s always pictured in. The hats are reportedly backordered with a three-week wait.
After the Grammy's, Chance took to Instagram to announce his Spring Tour which will begin in San Diego, California on April 24 and end in Los Angeles on Oct. 3. On Wednesday, Feb. 14, the rapper took to his Twitter account and reminded his fans not to buy tickets from scalpers because “we worked hard to make sure everybody could afford a ticket to the show.”
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