Chance the Rapper Urged To Run for Mayor in Chicago

U.S. hip-hop superstar and Chicago, Illinois, native Chance the Rapper has been urged to run for the mayor of Chicago.

A group of the rapper’s strongest fans and supporters have launched the website Chano4Mayor.com, according to Rap Up, where they explain why they’re backing Chance instead of the city’s incumbent mayor, Rahm Emanuel:

Hey, Chance, we think you’d be a great mayor, we love your music—we’ve been following your career from the first 10 days. We also love the work you’ve done to give back to the city that raised you.

You represent Chicago on the world stage, and you do us proud. We know you don’t think of yourself as a politician, and we respect that. But this election is an opportunity for Chicago that we don’t want to miss.

We need a new mayor; Rahm Emanuel has been in office since 2011. In that time, we’ve seen the closure of 50 public schools, the largest in history. The city shut down 6 of its 12 mental health clinics.

The Department of Justice found a pattern of civil rights violations by the Chicago Police Department, including but not limited to the murder of Laquan McDonald. It’s time for change,” the website said, referring to the fatal shooting of African-America McDonald by a Chicago cop in 2015.

The group also acknowledged the possibility that Chance may not be altogether welcoming of the idea of political office but said he should play an active role in political events.

Bea Malsky, 23, one of the organizers of the site, told the Chicago Sun-Times that she is confident that Chance could make a difference, “We would be very happy if he ran. We would be very happy if he’d become more politically involved and he endorsed a candidate who stands up for the same things that he stands up for in his music.”

Born Chancelor Bennett, Chance the Rapper is indeed no stranger to politics. His father, Ken Bennett, is a political organizer and a close associate of former U.S. President Barack Obama. Interestingly enough, Bennett currently serves as a top aide to Mayor Emmanuel.

The Grammy Award winner also has a history of political engagement with his music: On the song “Somewhere in Paradise,” released in 2015, he rapped:

They say I’m savin’ my city, say I’m stayin’ for good.

They screamin’, ‘Chano for mayor,’ I’m thinkin’ maybe I should.

 

Watch “Somewhere in Paradise” here:

In March, Chance put some of his political talk into practice with his generous donation of $1 million to kids in Chicago Public Schools. He followed that up with a subsequent donation of $10,000 to individual schools.

The “All We Got” singer is yet to issue a statement on whether he will run for office in the next mayoral elections, which isn’t until 2019. If he decides to, though, he can count on the support of his colleagues in the music industry, including Canadian-born rapper Drake who tweeted in support of him Wednesday.