Chance The Rapper To Headline Summerfest In First And Only Performance Of 2021
Chicago rapper and three-time Grammy winner, Chance The Rapper will be performing his first concert since March 2020 this Friday (Sept. 3) as the headliner for Summerfest 2021, billed as the world’s largest music festival at the American Family Insurance Amphitheater in Milwaukee.
“I'm excited because I am a performer. It’s probably the thing that I get the most joy from out of making music,” the “No Problems” rapper told BET.com in a phone interview. “Having so much fun in film and making the virtual concerts, I've started to just miss that in-person feeling of being at an actual concert,” he continued.
Virtual concerts aren’t the only thing Chance has been shooting. After a teaser in May and a trailer in July, Chance also released his debut full-feature film, Magnificent Coloring World on Aug. 13.
Directed by Jake Shreier (Robot & Frank, Paper Towns) and released through Chance’s House of Kick’s creative collective, the concert film takes viewers behind the scenes from a secret 2017 show in Chicago following the rapper’s industry-defining GRAMMY win for “Best Rap Album” that year for Coloring Book — the first stream-only project to do so.
Magnificent Coloring World also marks the first time an independent recording artist has distributed a movie through AMC.
Showing in select AMC theater locations, including Chicago venues, Magnificent Coloring World is the consummation of the ‘Coloring’ franchise, which began with the mixtape, Coloring Book, and his Magnificent Coloring Day concert in 2016.
“Coloring Book, for me, is probably the most definitive project just because it’s coming a year out of a big change,” Chance explained. “It’s a cool way to celebrate it — to be able to come out of this pandemic where everybody was so separated and be able to pay homage to one of my favorite mediums of art,” he continued.
Although the movie largely consists of concert footage, the BET Hip Hop 2017 Humanitarian Award recipient assures it appeals to the theatre faithful as well.
“A lot of concert films are like—t’s the tour that happens, where they play a set or two sets, and then, on the last night of the show, they put some cameras up and they shoot,” he says, pointing out what separates his concert film from others. “This was a very intentional film project that was made to be seen in a theater from its inception,” he continued.
In addition to the Summerfest and Magnificent Coloring World, the “Hot Shower” rapper has also been busy with his youth empowerment charity, SocialWorks.
Since its inception in 2016, they’ve made education, mental health, homelessness and performing literary arts their focus. Their latest initiative, however, has been the free breakfast program, where kids from ages three to seven go to the park district in the mornings from about 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. to participate in activities, games, and readings. “Yes, I wake up in the morning on Saturdays to go there,” says Chance.
For Chance and information on other performers taking the stage at Summerfest 2-4, 9-11, and 16-18, visit summerfest.com and check out Magnificent Coloring World exclusively at AMC theaters.
