Take Back Chicago

Chance The Rapper is a modern Chicago hip-hop artist that has recently been growing in popularity. In Chance’s song, Paranoia, He talks about all of the problems and injustices in the black communities of his hometown, Chicago, Illinois.

In the second line of the song Chance The rapper says,

“Somebody'll steal daddy's Rollie, call it the neighborhood watch”

Chance is saying that someone will steal his father’s wristwatch. Making a reference to a neighborhood watch goes back to the Trayvon Martin case when Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin during his neighborhood watch shift. This goes with the theme of the song because Chance talks about the racism and injustices of America and how no one pays attention to the problems of the black communities

When speaking about why the country doesn’t come into the hood or why the media doesn’t show the deep problems in the black community he says,

“Probably scared of all the refugees, look like we had a fuckin' hurricane here”

This simile is a reference back to when hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. The government took days to respond to the problem and many Americans believe it is because the hurricane mainly devastated the black communities. Chance believes that the same thing is going on in the black communities of Chicago. He is saying that if all of the violence and poverty were going on in white neighborhoods it would be a public spectacle.

Near the end of the song Chance begins to talk about the summer time and how he dreads when Summer comes. He sings,

“I heard everybody's dying in the summer
So pray to God for a little more spring”

Chance says this because in Chicago the homicide rates go up drastically in the summer time. He wants it to be springtime forever because everyone stays inside during spring due to all of the rain, thus not killing anyone. Upon further inspection this line also has another deeper meaning. In the bible, there is speak of the rapture or judgment day. This is a time when god says he will end the world in fire. In the song, Chance uses summer as a metaphor for the rapture because they are both hot. Chance is saying that everyone will die and either go to heaven or hell so we need to all pray to god that the time hasn’t come yet.

On the surface, Chance The Rapper comes off as a reckless hood rapper but in reality he is very thoughtful and caring. Chance has a soft spot for his home Chicago and wants to bring awareness to the problems at hand in our city.