Chance the Rapper Says 2Pac Inspired ‘F*ck ICE’ Chain, Bl…
Chance the Rapper says 2Pac inspired his “fuck ICE” chain.
When speaking on Real 92.3 LA’s The Cruz Show, Chance reflected on how inspirational 2Pac and his politics have been for him.
“I’m super grateful just for 2Pac’s story and the success and the messaging he was able to put out there,” said Chance around the 20:30 point of the interview, seen in the video above.
He then brought up the moment on his new album, Star Line, where he references 2Pac on “Drapetomania.”
“Tiffany fein in a blue box/401k in a shoe box/Her favorite rapper named 2Pac/Love 2Pac ’cause he shot two cops,” he raps on the track. “I got a 9 millimeter called Thug Life/I got a new chain, it say ‘FUCK ICE.'”
He said 2Pac’s outspoken nature is what compelled him to get a chain that makes his feelings on Immigration and Customs Enforcement clear.
“I feel like the radical—the ability to use your words like a sword and speak freely and to speak for people that don’t have necessarily as loud of a voice is, like, those are all things that I learned from 2Pac, who my mother made me listen to,” he explained. “She didn’t have to make me, but she put me on at a very young age.”
Cruz then asked Chance how he feels about the wave of ICE raids across the country, especially in Los Angeles.
“It’s disgusting. I think we’re just in a space where people are afraid to, I guess, really fight the system,” he said. “Like, this is a country that’s actually built on bloody revolutions and … radical thought and self-determination, and sometimes I think we make that such a historic thing or such a in-the-past kind of thing that we forget that, like, we’re a country built on fighting the system and fighting the power.”
Chance pointed out that Chicago, his home city, has one of the largest Latino populations in the country and that many consider it a “sanctuary city.”
“I think we’re just in a place where people sometimes feel helpless and they don’t know how to fight,” he said. “My voice and my pen is my gift, you know? And then on the other side there’s my physical body, and one day I’m going to have to give my physical body to the revolution. I hope it’s not soon. I got young kids.”
He stressed that it’s important for everyone to use their skills, whatever they may be, to help the voiceless.
“It’s late in the game. We’re at the fall of empire right now,” he said. “So, you know, I would say being in Chicago and growing up in those after-school programs … We were 14 years old, rocking keffiyehs and saying ‘Free Palestine.’ That’s how we grew up. Like, we are radical children that just happen to be in our 30s now. And so when it comes time for each one of us to put out a body of work, especially at this time, we have to use our heavenly gifts. And when the time comes, everybody’s going to have to use their bodies.”
Check out the full interview with Chance the Rapper above.