Chance the Rapper's Acid Rap turns five years old today, and writer Josh Terry chronicled for Complex how this classic mixtape came together.
One of the most interesting parts of the entire feature takes a look at "Acid Rain," which the album's engineer Elton Chueng said Chance wanted to be "super-vulnerable" on. During the song, Chance raps, "And I still get jealous of Vic [Mensa]/And Vic's still jealous of me." In the years that followed, Vic Mensa and Chance went through what might have a beef, although it's since been squashed. Speaking with Terry, Vic admits he was in fact jealous of Chance at that time.
"It was real when I heard that," he explained. "I was still with Kids These Days when it came out and I was in the van with all of them. The band was breaking up at that point, with seven people, and most of them were resenting me at that point. Chance was right because I was jealous. Here he was doing what he wants to do and I’m sitting here with a band that was breaking up, with people who want nothing to do with me, and feeling creatively stifled. It hit hard because there were plenty of times that he was jealous of me."
As Chueng explained, Chance asked his manager Pat Corcoran whether it was OK if he rapped that line about Vic. "I just remember that being a special moment, where he wanted to be vulnerable but didn’t want to go too far. While Chance and Vic still go at it every now and again, they’re still brothers. Pat said to keep going and Chance kept writing."
Vic reiterates, though, that he holds no resentment over the line. "It was honest, man. I was actually taken aback by some of his honesty at some parts in the song. It was dope." Read the whole piece here.
