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Grammy-winning rhymer Chance The Rapper spent a good part of his “Be Encouraged” tour dissing major record labels for their exploitative practices. His hit single “No Problem” featured Chance threatening to have his dreadlocked friends invade label offices if executives continued to take advantage of him and his peers’ creative talent. On Thursday, June 22 he announced that he was wrong to include one label in his industry-wide disses.
Chance is still unapologetically anti-industry, but the Coloring Book rapper does regret his decision to poke fun at Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Records imprint, which operates under the Interscope Records umbrella.
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A slideshow that ran during Chance’s spring tour dissed labels with brand mock-ups like PHONY (instead of SONY) Records, A Titanic (Atlantic) Records, and Villain (Virgin) Records. One graphic resembled Dre’s Aftermath logo and read: “Can’t Do Math.” Apparently, Chance and his show runners momentarily forgot Dre and Aftermath’s many contributions to the culture, including the transformation of Eminem and 50 Cent into global icons.
“I want to formally apologize to Dr Dre, and all of Aftermath for publicly disrespecting their hard work and contributions to music,” Chano wrote. “When I went on the Be Encouraged tour I made LED content to satirize and degrade major labels, (I) made the mistake of including Imprints which not only dulled my overall point of trying to uplift artist…But also singled out artist-owned ventures that have only worked to progress the culture.”
Surely Dre will find it in his heart to forgive the young rebel. Since founding Aftermath in 1996 he’s made peace with former foes Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and invested time in grooming understudies like Scott Storch and Kendrick Lamar. Here’s to the hope that Chance’s humble apology might spark a collaboration between the NWA OG and the outspoken Chicago-native.
