Chancelor Bennett (born April 16, 1993), known professionally as Chance the Rapper, is an American hip hop recording artist from the West Chatham neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. In 2013, he began to gain major recognition following the release of his second mixtape, Acid Rap. Chance is also a member of the Chicago collective Save Money with frequent collaborator Vic Mensa, and he experimented as the lead vocalist for the band The Social Experiment. Chance grew up as the oldest brother in the middle-class neighborhood of West Chatham in Chicago's South Side, his younger brother Taylor Bennett is also a Chicago rapper. His father, Ken Williams-Bennett, was a prominent presence in the city: He served as an aide to former Chicago mayor Harold Washington and worked for then-Senator Barack Obama. Williams-Bennett, who is now a deputy chief of staff to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, dreamed that his son might one day hold office.

But Chance was always more interested in the arts, performing in talent shows from his pre-school days through high school at Chicago's esteemed Jones College Prep.[citation needed] Chance showed interests in music at a young age, and in his freshman year of high school at Jones College Prep High School, he formed the hip-hop duo Instrumentality with a friend. Many of Chance's earliest performances took place at the YOUmedia Lyricist Loft at Harold Washington Library in Chicago. He mentioned in an interview that fellow Chicago native Kanye West's 2004 debut album The College Dropout was the first hip-hop album that he ever purchased and listened to, previously being into soul and jazz. In May 2016, Bennett released the mixtape Coloring Book to further critical acclaim.