Chance the Rapper gives lecture at Harvard

Chance the Rapper recently gave a lecture at Harvard University’s Hiphop Archive & Research Institute, taking part in a Q&A with students. As well as calling his cover of the Arthur theme tune ‘Everyday Wonderful’ “my proudest moment,” he spoke about a wide range of topics, from current events in Baltimore, and misogyny in hip-hop, to Jay-Z’s new streaming venture Tidal.

As The Fader reports, Chance the Rapper spoke about artistic integrity at the lecture, saying “”Don’t make the music that they like. Make them like the music that you make. It wouldn’t be cool if you were just making it so that they fuck with it. What’s the point?”

Speaking about current events in Baltimore following the murder of Freddie Gray, Chance said “I don’t want to dance around saying this shit is wrong. I think we all know that. It’s very hard to watch it happening on a loop.”

He highlighted misogyny in hip-hop, and said that he scrapped a song because he felt uncomfortable with his repeated use of the word “bitch” on a track he wrote called ‘Bitch Is Goofy’. ” I was writing a lot of records that just seem to have just a lot of ill will,” he said, “…it wasn’t until I heard that record played back after somebody ripped it that I realized I couldn’t associate with it…I just had this just short but important moment of reflection. I felt really responsible so I dug this deep hole and I threw “This Bitch Is Goofy” in there.

Chance also called Jay-Z’s Tidal formula “awesome,” and had similar praise for Kanye West. “I just respect the fuck out of him.” he said.