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March 29, 2024

News: Chance the Rapper & Jimmy Butler Cover ‘ESPN The Magazine’

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Three time Grammy Award winner Chance the Rapper and NBA star Jimmy Butler cover the latest issue of ESPN Magazine’s Entertainment issue with Justin Tinsley. The two talk meeting for the first time, how their influential can change the city of Chicago and their thoughts on the President. You can take a look at some of the interview below and read the full article here.

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TINSLEY: How’d y’all come to know each other?
BUTLER: I came to Magnificent Coloring Day [Chance’s music festival held in Chicago last September] with Lil Wayne, and that was the first time I had bumped into him and talked to him. I followed his career and his music, and I love what he was doin’ for the city of Chicago. Another former teammate of mine, Joakim Noah, had met him and spoke extremely highly of him.
I did a deal with a group that I do, BAM [Becoming a Man, a youth counseling group], here in Chicago, and all of these young kids wanted to be rappers. And I’m like, “Who’s your favorite rapper?” “Oh, Chance, from Chicago.” The hope that he puts in these kids’ hearts around this city is why he’s gonna be successful for a very long time, why his name is gonna be ringing for a very long time. This is his city.
CHANCE: Thanks, man. I’m really good friends with Joakim Noah and with D-Rose, and really good friends with D-Wade now too since he got back. Since Jimmy started playing, there’s, like, a very excited feel about going to United Center and going to see the Bulls play. I think Jimmy adds character to the game. I got the jersey, I think, three years ago, and I always wear it to the games. I just always been a fan.

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TINSLEY: What is it about sports and music, specifically basketball and hip-hop, that’s always brought them together?
CHANCE: To me, I feel like basketball and hip-hop have always been kinda conjoined because they’re very similar in their competitive nature, you know what I’m sayin’? It’s about technical skill, and then there’s just God-given talent.
BUTLER: I think it has a lot to do with the competitive nature of everything and the respect that you have for somebody else’s craft. You always want to see if you can really do what they do on a daily basis. It’s not always as easy as it looks or sounds.

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TINSLEY: Whether you like it or not, you two are the new faces of Chicago. What’s that responsibility like?
BUTLER: It’s cool because every morning, you just have to continue to be who you are, do what you did to get you to this point. That’s the way I look at it. And in this city, that’s all anybody ever asks of you is to work hard. When you bring that, they love you.
CHANCE: I don’t know how Jimmy does it ’cause he’s not from here, but that’s a lot of weight, right? Just carrying, like, the reality of it, the aggression and, like you said, the hardworking attitude. But also being a person of influence in a city that’s so small, it’s so communal, everybody knows each other here. I was raised here, and it’s been kind of a fishbowl thing—I’ve swam around a bunch of times. But I feel very comfortable, and it’s good to still live here.