James Sorber
19 February 2020
Writing 2
Song Analysis
Chance the Rapper is one on the most influential rappers in modern day rap. From growing up on the streets of crime-filled Chicago, to living a wealthy life with his wife and child and following the path of God, Chance has always been a humbled rapper. Growing up for Chance was not a pleasant or easy experience for him. In many of his released songs, he attempts to describe his life of growing up in Chicago through the art of music. Chance’s “Summer Friends” song released on May 13th of 2016, being one of the bigger hits of his “Coloring Book”’ album. This song briefly describes how meeting friends in the summers of Chicago could change within months due to Chicago’s high crime rates.
Chance describes in the beginning of the song how his faith in God is incredible and that he is a God-fearing man. In the first verse, Chance explains how he seemed to be a little bit of a trouble-maker with his friends, stating that he back talked his mom a lot and had to spend nights at his grandmother’s house a lot and how him and his friends were a “bunch of tank-top, nappy headed bike-stealin’ Chatham boys.” Chatham is a town in south Chicago where Chance and his friends grew up in. Next, chance goes into the topic of stating that him and his friends didn’t have their fathers around when they were growing up, therefor, they didn’t have much of a choice other than to steal to help them live.
Chance starts to speak about his childhood memories of going to the movies and chasing ice cream trucks. He also seems to try to get the idea across that 79th street had a significant part in his journey through growing up in Chicago. 79th street is one of the most crime-filled streets in America according to the media. He repeats in the chorus the number 79 over many times and even says in the song “79th street was America then.” However, Chance stated in an interview that although the media made the street seem outrageously dangerous, it was never as bad as it seemed. Therefore, when chance says “79th street was America then,” he means that most of the news around America was focused on this one street when he was younger.
Shortly after speaking about 79th street, Chance says in his song, “had to come in at dark cause the big shorties act hard,” meaning that he used to have to go inside at night because that was when the real danger emerged in the forms of gangsters and thugs. When Chance was younger, he believes that school was always hard for him because of how he grew up on the street and that because of his bad grades, he had to attend summer school with his friends. Chancelor has now donated millions of dollars to the education system of Chicago to make them safer and more efficient. Chance states in his song, “summer school get to losin’ students but the CPD getting new recruitment,” meaning that over the summers, Chance began to notice that many students he knew in the past were now dead or apart of the CPD (Chicago Police Department).
Onto the chorus Chance sings “summer friends don’t stay,” indicating that some of his past friends he had met in the summer are no longer alive or left the city to get away from the violence. When Chance sings the chorus, there is a change of tone in his voice, telling the listener that he is still heartbroken about losing many of his friends to the city streets. Although the song is mostly about losing his summer friends to crime, Chancelor doesn’t forget to mention what he did on his own and how his family-life progressed. Chance’s family struggled financially while he was growing up with his mother owning a hair salon, his father working late nights for extra cash, and himself mowing lawns and other simple jobs to make money. Chance shares his families’ financial story in the beginning of the second verse by saying “mama hair salon doin’ perms out the armchair, dad was workin’ late, he treat the crib like it’s a timeshare, I would mow some lawns, fold my ones like a lawn chair.”
Finally, in the outro, singer Jeremih sings about how no matter what happened in the streets of Chicago, he always stuck with his friends no matter what. He says, “I would always treat my gang like family members,” letting us know that even though the people he grew up with were only friends at the time, they grew to become apart of his family. The message here is trying to show that Chance and many others growing up in Chicago needed people to help them through anything and that these bonds grew stronger as they progressed their childhoods.
The song “Summer Friends” is about how Chance wanted to remember and bring awareness to the ones lost to Chicago’s streets. He emphasizes that not everyone you meet will always be around, especially in the most crime-filled city in America. Although Chance knows Chicago is infested with crime, he still wanted to make one of the worst streets in Chicago to be viewed as not as bad as it was portrayed. I believe that Chance wants to make not only Chicago, but the world a happier and safer place for the children growing up.
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