Junior Who Once Proclaimed 'Chance Sucked at Fling' Changes Mind After Grammys

When just under a year ago, Chance the Rapper was announced as the Spring Fling headliner via spray-pained bedsheet hung up at a darty (that has to be a metaphor for something), reactions from the Penn student body were divisive. Some loved him, some didn’t know who he was, and some were wondering where SPEC was spending all of its fling budget (because it definitely wasn’t on 3LAU).

And when Chance almost cancelled his performance, showing up hours late while students were freezing in the stands, opinions of Chance’s performance ranged from “yeah, it was terrible” to “it’s 30 degrees, why the hell are you interviewing me right now.”

But a month later, Chance released his latest album, Coloring Book, to critical acclaim. By the fall, it was hard to find a Penn student walking down Locust who didn’t have "No Problem" blasting on Spotify. And just this past weekend, Chance won three Grammys— including Best New Artist. Yeah, he beat the Chainsmokers. We talked to junior Brad Hortford (C'18) to get his opinion of the controversial rapper.

"Okay sure, I definitely used to think that Chance's Fling performance sucked. But now that he's successful, I'm reconsidering," Hortford told us, "I don't think I appreciated his artistic genius before I realized that he was actually famous."

"I used to tell everyone about how I didn't even go to the concert," added his friend, Andrew White (W'18), "I felt pretty good about my decision, but now I feel like I missed out. Like, people know who he is now."

"Yeah, like did you know that he's unsigned? That's sick, you know, fight the power and all that," Hortford added, attempting to dab. "We're woke now."