“I bought the Chicagoist just to run you racist bitches out of business.”
This is a line from Chance the Rapper’s summer single, “I might need security.” News outlets were quick to pick up on this and investigate and it turns out Chance was telling the truth. He bought the Chicago media publication The Chicagoist.
However, in a Genius interview, Chance explained, “I purchased the Chicagoist actually not to run racist bitches out of business. Really, I bought it to provide more jobs for black and brown people in the city as writers at a high profile publication.”
The Chicagoist was shut down.
On Nov. 30, Chance promoted his first “Chicagoist TV Exclusive” (as well as dropping two new singles). In the short film, Chance plays Champ Bennett, investigative reporter for the Chicagoist. The film generously explains Chicago’s aldermanic politics, while hilariously satirizing the corruption.
“He is a product of the Chicago west and south side, so it’s not as though he’s just coming in and buying a media outlet,” said Sam Torrence, fourth-year Loyola student and Environmental policy major. “He probably does have good intentions to promote stories that don’t get into the Tribune and Sun-Times. That being said, it really depends how he ends up running it.”