Chicago’s Chance the Rapper has unfortunately found himself back in the internet’s hot seat after his motivational commencement address to graduate students of Dillard University on Saturday (May 12).

The Coloring Book emcee took the mic in acceptance of his honorary doctorate degree presented by the institution and to share some resonating words of inspiration for the fresh class of 2018 graduates. Chance dedicated his speech to reminding them of “what it means to live into your greatness without fear,” pointing to the legendary artisanship and legacies of musical greats, the late King of Pop Michael Jackson and the Queen Bey, Beyoncé.

His delivery came on a note about each individual’s responsibility to his or herself to surpass the greatness of those who came before them, as he believes Bey’s critically acclaimed, history-making 2018 Coachella performance did.

"Generations of little Black kids have been mesmerized before the TV screen or YouTube, watching as Mike seemed to do the impossible,” he said in the speech. “One of those little Black kids would grow up to be someone especially amazing. She would do more than just copy Mike. She would surpass him. And now, I'm going to tell you about the greatest performance put on by the greatest performer of all time, and it wasn't Mike.”

Chance went on to crown Bey the master of the stage, declaring that such an honor had been passed down from MJ and that the Coachella performance was "better than any performance Michael Jackson ever did." It was then, he said, that the “No Problem” rapper had an epiphany that role models should exemplify what we can surpass, not stop at.

"I realized that all of us have a responsibility to be greater than the people who came before us,” he elaborated. We have a responsibility to be not as good as them or live up to their example, but to actually surpass them, even when it seems scary. We have to overcome that fear and be greater than our role models. We have to erase the fear and stigma behind eclipsing our heroes."  

Of his lengthy speech, unfortunately, some fans took his remark on Bey’s comparison to MJ and ran with it, accusing him of shading the late music legend to shine light on her. And like clockwork, Bey’s devout BeyHive and MJ’s Moonwalkers are at each other’s throats over the commentary.