I Might Need Security
Chance the Rapper, a 25 year old, Chicago born Hip-Hop and R&B artist, released four new tracks this July following a two year hiatus. Despite all four singles being outstanding, one definitely stood out as the strongest, “I Might Need Security”.
The track is an anger-fuelled flow over an edited sample of Jamie Foxx from his 2002 stand up special ‘I Might Need Security’, hence where the title of the song came from.
There’s no real hook to the song, but the sample phrase “Fuck You” serves in place, with the powerful, empowering lyrics layered over.
“I ain’t no activist, I’m the protagonist”
The first verse is full of references and name drops, he mentions the Illuminati, Batman, (Ledger and Nicholson) and the Mayor of Chicago, amongst others.
This line in the song is one of many in the track that touch on politics, in Chicago specifically. The lyric is referencing the police murdering of Laquan McDonald and the Mayor’s involvement in hiding information from the case from what I can gather. |n Chance’s genius lyric explanation he spoke about this, “It’s important that people know we have a shitty mayor, but I’m sure everybody else has shitty mayors that they need to worry about.”
The second verse is where he really embraces his anger.
He raps of his seemingly lost battle with the press, referencing when Crain’s released images of the interior of Chance’s new house after he called off an interview and when a local paper misconstrued a story about Chance being a bad father. He also mentions his triumphs, ie purchasing The Chicagoist so he could provide more jobs for people of colour.
“I look forward to relaunching it and bringing the people of Chicago an independent media outlet focused on amplifying diverse voices and content”
He concludes this verse with one powerful, exaggerated FUCK YOU. It’s a perfectly fitting end to his rant.
This very real topical and inspirational track managed to land a spot on the Hot 100 in the first week of August, at No. 60! I think that more artists and people of influence in the industry should do as Chance does and use their talent of expression to talk about major and relevant issues. It allows music to adopt not just a means of inspiring but of changing things. I don’t know about you but I love it! Chance is hopefully setting the groundwork for more artists to follow suit and explicitly voice their opinions on important matters.
