Chance The Rapper Reveals Kanye West Almost Participated on 'Surf'

During this year’s Pitchfork Music Festival, The Guardian magazine had the opportunity to sit down with the headlining act and Chicago’s own, Chance The Rapper. The interview revealed a surprisingly ambitious side to the young artist. His desire to preserve his artistic vision is evident, as he spoke on his refusal to conform to a persona that is expected within the music industry. Chance also disclosed interesting takeaways regarding his project Surf – credited to Donnie Trumpet and his band the Social Experiment — such as a potential narration by his idol Kanye West, who was also one of the first people to listen to the album. Although West never contributed to Surf, fans may be happy to hear that a future collaborative effort is on the way. Enjoy the excerpt below and head over to The Guardian for the full interview.

“The kid in me wanted a certain type of approval [from Kanye],” says Chance, who admits he once wanted “Kanye to be my dad”, still beaming at the memory. He and West have recently been working together in the studio on an undisclosed future collaboration, and as Chance reveals for the first time to the Guardian that West, who heard Surf “before anyone else”, was originally slated to appear on the entirety of the album. “Yah, he was going to narrate it at one point,” Chance says. “In the final weeks of getting ready to put it out we had vocal chops that we were using from ’Ye talking about some of the themes of the project. Through just thinking about it, it didn’t end up happening that way. Not to say it wouldn’t have been dope as shit!”