{"id":28656,"date":"2022-12-22T07:12:05","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T07:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=28656"},"modified":"2022-12-22T07:12:06","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T07:12:06","slug":"chance-the-rapper-concert-in-ghana-to-take-off-on-january-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/12\/22\/chance-the-rapper-concert-in-ghana-to-take-off-on-january-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Chance the Rapper concert in Ghana to take off on January 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Chance the Rapper visited West Africa earlier this year, he initially thought his trip with fellow Chicago hip-hop artist Vic Mensa would be just another vacation getaway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the Grammy winner connected with Mensa\u2019s father\u2019s family in Ghana and other natives from the Motherland on a deeper level. He saw Ghana\u2019s beautiful ocean coastline and waterfalls, engulfed himself in the musical culture and art scene and learned more about the country\u2019s rich history of being the first sub-Saharan African country to free itself from colonialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After a couple more trips to Ghana, Chance decided to create a free concert series and visual arts show so others could experience the country\u2019s vibrant culture just like he did. During the summer, Chance and Mensa brought eight students from Chicago to Ghana to learn more about Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt so free in Ghana. .. and I want others to feel the same way,\u201d said Chance, who along with Mensa will host the inaugural Black Star Line festival in Accra, Ghana, in 2023. The weeklong festival will feature events, panel discussions and a free concert on Jan. 6 with performances by Chance, Mensa, Erykah Badu, T-Pain, Jeremih, Sarkodie, Tobe Nwigwe, Asakaa Boys and M.anifest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event will be held in Accra\u2019s Black Star Square, a monument to the political freedom that was won by Ghanaians in 1957. The festival\u2019s title was inspired by civil rights leader Marcus Garvey\u2019s Black Star Line, which was founded in 1919 and operated by Black people who helped link global shipping and tourism opportunities between America, the Caribbean and Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garvey inspired Chance\u2019s music video \u201c YAH Know,<\/strong> \u201d featuring King Promise, and his upcoming album \u201cStar Line Gallery,\u201d which is expected for release next year. He\u2019s already released a few other new music videos \u2014 such as \u201c Child of God<\/strong>,\u201d \u201c A Bar About a Bar<\/strong> \u201d and \u201c The Highs & Lows<\/strong> \u201d with Joey Bada$$ \u2014 in which he calls \u201calbum art\u201d to highlight popular artists in Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chance said Naila Opiangah<\/strong> \u2019s art piece for \u201cChild of God\u201d will be on display at the festival. He said his new \u201csongs are candid realities of Black life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArtists have amazing graphics and album covers and single artworks that are made by great artists every day that\u2019s released,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the only time you get to see it is on this little inch-by-one inch depiction of it. These pieces are painted by world class artists. The ability to go see those pieces and interact with them in real life kind of adds people\u2019s understanding of the music.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through his festival, Chance says he wants to bridge the gap between Black people abroad and Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that specifically the story of the founder\u2019s independence is something that all black people should know,\u201d he said \u201cThere are no free sub-Saharan African countries until 1957. I think they should know about the revolutionary leaders on the continent and abroad. I think that if we had this connectedness and this interaction, people will actually have a chance to see this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, it was tough gaining commitments from big-name music artists to travel and perform in West Africa. With few sponsors, much of the expenses to fund the free concert were out-of-pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Chance\u2019s team found a way to make the trip more affordable for travelers through a partnership with United Airlines, which is offering discount fares to Ghana for a year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s taken a lot of work to organize the event in such a short time, but Chance believes this festival could live on successfully for the next 50 years. In the future, he wants to host the festival in other countries, such as Jamaica and Haiti. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for now, Chance\u2019s focus has been on attracting more people to Ghana, a place he can envision his family living after his daughters head to college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wish I could live there right now,\u201d said the rapper, who has lived in Chicago his whole life. \u201cI want people to see the convergence and similarities in all of these Black lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Chance the Rapper visited West Africa earlier this year, he initially thought his trip with fellow Chicago hip-hop artist Vic Mensa would be just another vacation getaway.  Instead, the Grammy winner connected with Mensa\u2019s father\u2019s family in Ghana and other natives from the Motherland on a deeper level. He saw Ghana\u2019s beautiful ocean coastline […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":28658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[80],"tags":[4553,1648,4899,8607,11353,11974,9738,6573,2539,9079,11183,8173,7995,8924,2706,854,9214,11088,3513,10739,5455,746,12011,3545,4028,9643,3577,192,12502,1445,3270,7647,5327,12234,8601,2792,522,4070,5058,11973,428,6431,236,6047,7333,5471,6584,5401,11052,5456,7517,8033,5981,3954,10415,36,594],"class_list":["post-28656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-accra","tag-africa","tag-african","tag-african-countries","tag-airlines","tag-album","tag-bada","tag-black","tag-black-star","tag-black-star-concert","tag-boys","tag-bridge","tag-caribbean","tag-chance","tag-chance-the-rapper","tag-chicago","tag-child","tag-concert","tag-culture","tag-display","tag-family","tag-feel","tag-festival","tag-founder","tag-freedom","tag-fund","tag-future","tag-ghana","tag-ghanaians","tag-god","tag-grammy","tag-grammy-winner","tag-haiti","tag-host","tag-independence","tag-jamaica","tag-king-promise","tag-m-anifest","tag-music","tag-one","tag-rapper","tag-release","tag-sarkodie","tag-students","tag-summer","tag-tourism","tag-travel","tag-travelers","tag-united-airlines","tag-vacation","tag-vic-mensah","tag-video","tag-west-africa","tag-will","tag-work","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}