Chance the Rapper - Good Enough (2010)

Xanax + MD 20/20 may not be a good enough recipe to get on Martha Stewart's cooking show, but it's a good enough recipe to kill myself with! Ha-HAAA!!! I actually woke up the other night at 4 AM after drinking a fair bit of rum (no Xannies, don't worry) and threw up all over my bed. It took me like half a day until I slept on that mattress again. I am living the American Dream! If only my Mexican grandma could see me now.. She's blind. You thought I meant she was dead, but joke's on you: She's blind AND dead!!

Chance the Rapper's (pls say "the Rapper") first mixtape (or at least the first that the internet has uncovered) is an interesting affair, with him mainly rapping over alternative rock instrumentals as opposed to sampling popular hip-hop songs, and it actually kinda works, because when most rappers go over other hip-hop instrumentals for mixtapes, it ends up being a "you remember the original? now see what I can do with it" affair where they hope to beat Dr. Dre or whoever else on their own songs, but in the case of this mixtape, Chance the Rapper often gives a new voice to certain alternative rock songs, in order to get across either a continuation of that song's message, or to work around a hook with a new story, such as in "Doctor Oz" where he tells the stories of insecurities in teenagers, with one verse being from the perspective of a teenage boy who wants to be a jock, one verse being from the perspective of a girl who wishes to be prettier, and finally, the hardest hitting verse from the perspective of a gay teenage boy who just wants to fit in.

Unfortunately, while Chance the Rapper has a lot to say about social issues, trying to instill confidence in yourself, and a bunch of other great, positive things or just things to think about, they're not usually delivered in a captivating way that leaves you wanting more, and in my case, just left me wanting to listen to the original songs sampled instead. This is possibly the first hip-hop album I've ever heard of that would be better as a lecture at a high school than actual music.

6/10
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Feel free to check out this mixtape for FREE on DatPiff!