At first, we (my editor at TechCityNG and I) were torn between doing a story about this or just letting it slide since we thought it might be stale. But apparently, it’s a building story and the faster we hop on it the better for all of us (including you the audience). As a non-music person, my first time of hearing about 23-year-old Chancelor Bennett (aka Chance, Chance-the-Rapper) was after he won broke record at the 2017 Grammy’s where he won 3 Grammy awards (Best New Artist, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Album) having been nominated in 5 categories (3 of his songs were nominated for BEST RAP SONG). Now, that might not be record breaking to you, but the fact that his “Coloring Book” album was released streaming-only (as in, there are no physical copies of his songs anywhere!) without any promotion and record label backing should send some vibes.

The moment @chancetherapper won his first Grammy

A post shared by gerrick d. kennedy (@gerrickkennedy) on Feb 12, 2017 at 3:18pm PST

Particularly, what endears us to him is his Personal Social Responsibility – an unmistaken passion he has for the education sector of the American Chicago state.

So, Chance is from Chicago and attended one of the public schools there, currently, the educational system there leaves a lot to be desired as there has been major funding and budget cuts in the city. He has been in talks with the governor and while not a lot of progress has been made, many people now seem to be paying attention to it. How? Twitter.

Chance the Rapper has tweeted every statement he could possibly think of on the school subject since day 1!

He has had conferences on Facebook live, and Instagram live. He carries his fans and critics along using (every) available online platform. Even News organizations went ahead to tweet him historical facts with regards to the Chicago education sector, how things had changed and how Chance had a good case on his hands. He received an appreciation from a chicagoan, teacher and alum of Chicago Public School (CPS). It was only after then, he revealed “The fight has just begun”

The fight has just begun https://t.co/JsA7kfXDeS

— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) March 3, 2017

Three days later (March 6), he announced at a Press Conference that he will be giving $10,000 to various schools (CPS) for after-school programs as well as donating one million dollars. For Americans who couldn’t watch the press conference and for his teeming fans across the globe, Chance took to Twitter to break the news there. There were doubters. Trolls, etc but… alas! It happened!

Y'all wanna hear some Good news? #SupportCPS

— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) March 9, 2017

Follow through that Twitter thread and you’ll see a list of 9 schools that benefitted from a check of $10,000 dollars as donated by Social Works Chicago (championing his #supportCPS movement) – a charity co-founded by Chance focused on inspiring the youth through engagement in the art, education and civic engagement.

While he isn’t just going in alone, he is also inspiring others to do same to alleviate the deplorable state of the CPS. Here, Michael Bennett talks about being inspired to follow in Chance’s footsteps;

Chance The Rapper Inspires Seahawks’ Michael Bennett To Donate Endorsement Earnings https://t.co/TtZgRRJVtq pic.twitter.com/dFF49O04jz

— Vibe Magazine (@VibeMagazine) March 10, 2017

Vibe.com reports that it was March 6, Chance pledged to donate $1 million to CPS’s and barely 10 days later we receive news from Billboard stating that Chicago students penned an open letter to him stating “you are more than just an artist to us, but a way of Life”, as documented by Billboard in that link.

https://twitter.com/VibeMagazine/status/842416422022197248

When musicians with millions of followers on Twitter use the app (only) to promote their new single or other content, Chance makes for a good example how internet (marketing) tools can be used for things as delicate as social responsibility and he has been able to draw the attention of the world to a state problem simply by making his ‘approach’ more inclusive and gives a fresh perspective to what “giving back to the society” connotes. His occasional clap backs are equally captivating. To keep up with what he is up to, do these things;

1. Check his Twitter Timeline
2. Visit here more often for contextual easy-to-read news.

Just in today:

All these great folks took time out of their busy schedules for a 7 hour meeting on #SupportCPS Thank you for investing in the kids pic.twitter.com/f6yJYGblb8

— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) March 17, 2017

Other American artistes who have or are giving back immensely are Oprah Winfrey, Demi Lovato, Taylor Swift, John Cena & Justin Bieber (via makeawish.com), Kanye West, Jay Z, Jennifer Hudson, BOB, Nas, Eminem, Zendaya… and about 20 or so more. 🙂

Now to study how Nigerian artistes are tweeting their revolutions…