Interview Magazine got Chance The Rapper to interview Hannibal Buress for its latest issue, but we ended up learning more about the rapper than the comedian. Calling from an Airbnb in Los Angeles, Chance revealed he auditioned for a role in the upcoming N.W.A. biopic, Straight Outta Compton.
"I read for Dre," he said. "But it wasn't in God's plan."
Chance also went back and forth with Buress to discuss his foray into comedy:
CHANCE: You know, I've been dabbling in the comedy world, showing up at random improv shows. Been on stage doing four minute sets. So I figured, "Hannibal's going give me my big break." I can come out to NY and fucking crush it.
BURESS: I haven't really seen your stand up yet. I think it's a tough transition. It's easy to go from comedian to rapper, but to go from rapper to comedian is tougher. I mean, your name is "Chance the Rapper."
CHANCE: You mean for me to go into comedy, I'm going to have change my name?
BURESS: "Chance the Comedian."
CHANCE: I'm probably going to do some comedy shows at my new sets. I can be very funny.
Buress asked Chance about the events he does in Chicago and YouMedia, which led him to talk about his new open mic event recently covered by The Early Registration.
Yeah! YOUmedia is still around. I grew up in that program. I would go down there all the time when I was in high school. It was a rec center kind of thing, but with more tech stuff, so they had free WiFi, laptops you could use, a recording studio, DJ classes, production software classes, music theory classes, tutoring... and it was all free. That was awesome. But on Wednesdays specifically, they had this open mic thing hosted by this guy Brother Mike. I used to go to that every Wednesday, back from when I was a sophomore in high school until after I graduated. And Brother Mike, who put it all together, passed away last year. So I'm putting together an open mic in memory of him, two Mondays out of the month in Chicago for high school kids. Just keeping that idea—free presentation of art, and how important it is to be a member of an art community from a young age—keeping that shit going. Organizing that stuff is real easy, because I know a lot of people in the city and I think we're at a point in Chicago's renaissance that people are happy to do shit.
Read the entire interview here.
