4. His Father Is Apart Of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Staff
Chance’s father, Ken Williams-Bennett is the current deputy chief of staff for Emanuel, but has worked in government for a long time, serving as an aide on former Chicago mayor Harold Washington’s staff and worked for Barack Obama was he was an Illinois senator. Ken always dreamed of seeing his boy run for office someday, but has always been supportive of Chance and his aspirations. Chance actually interned for Barack Obama when he was 15 years-old, but the performing arts hooked him in early, and he quickly shifted gears to getting on stage and rapping.
Chance’s connections with Emmanuel created some controversy when he spoke out on director Spike Lee’s film “Chi-Raq”, who incidentally is also Chance’s uncle. Chance had this to say about Lee and his film in a series of tweets from last March.
I just complied the tweets into one quote, below:
“Come on now This guy promoting this offensive unsuccessful flop of a movie … about the Southside…in fucking Evanston…” Chance says referencing the town that the college is located in. “And then get mad when students at the screening challenge him on his sexist, and RACIST movie and he wanna point the finger at me. Boy. You are a lame. But more importantly a liar. Now stop tweeking for I get to releasing audio of you begging me to be in that trash ass movie.”
Lee had this to say in response:
“Chance the Rapper’s a fraud,” Lee said, according to North by NORTHWESTERN. “Straight-up fraud. He puts himself up as a speaker of the people, but that means you have to put truths that you see. That doesn’t mean you can pick and choose what you talk about.”
Lee is referring to Chance’s father and his link to the Mayor Emmanuel, someone the movie is extremely critical of.
