If anyone in Chicago was skeptical about Chance The Rapper before Magnificent Coloring Day, Saturday proved to be the inaugural acceptance of Lil Chano from 79th.
The attendance record for U.S. Cellular Field was broken this Saturday, with a record of 44,000 people in attendance. for the one-day festival. Instead of cheering on the final home run, this particular crowd danced for 11 hours at Magnificent Coloring Day (MCD) and welcomed the new champ of Chicago, Chance The Rapper.
It can be challenging to think about the South Side without acknowledging the violence that happens frequently in various communities. Luckily, Chance The Rapper shed new light on the South Side, allowing attendees to see the historic part of town that has housed some of Chicago’s biggest talents to date.
U.S. Cellular Field, which hasn’t had a music concert in 13 years, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. With surprise guest appearances from Kanye West and Common and comedian Hannibal Buress the 11-hour show seemed to be never-ending, with an A-list lineup.
“There are more people in line than there are at Sox games,” said Kyle Miller, a 30-year-old fan waiting in line.
The show kicked off with Francis and the Lights, but it was the second artist of the lineup, Lil Uzivert, who gave security a hint of how the crowd was going to be like as the day progressed and acts got bigger. As Uzi jumped off the stage and into the crowd, fans swarmed the Philly rapper as he ran through the stadium.
With Young Thug being a no show, Tyler the Creator took the stage next. He started his performance by acknowledging how the stage set-up blocked some of the fans from seeing the show. “Someone should get fired,” he said.
There was a pause in between performances, but when the beat dropped for “Beautiful Morning,” the crowd instantly knew what was going on. Fans rushed security and jumped over the railings and dug-outs just to get to the floor to see what seemed to be a melody of Kanye West’s greatest hits.
As Yeezy hit the stage he was joined by his friend Chance the Rapper for their hit song “Ultralight Beam.” As they hugged it seemed to be a moment where 39-year-old West was passing the torch on to his protégé.
“Kanye West was the best part of the show. His work with Chance sounds even better in person and all his old work are classics,” DePaul student Rajanee Redmond said. “I love Kanye like Kanye loves Kanye.”
2 Chainz and Lil Wayne broke a tired crowd by performing hit after hit. “We can go all night,” 2 Chainz said as he performed casually side by side with Lil Wayne.
“The energy was insane when Lil Wayne came out,” said Brittany Cannon a 21-year-old Columbia College student.
“He just tweeted he was retiring so this could be one of his last performances and he went crazy.”
As the final performance of the night, the pressure was on Chance to top previous performers but Chance couldn’t sell out the U.S. Cellular Field without bringing a powerful, well-directed performance.
After starting the performance with his song “Angels” the crowd was amped for the rest of the night.
The 23-year-old rapper performed hits from his two previous mixtapes “10 day” and “Acid Rap” but expressed that he wanted the stadium to resemble Lollapalooza after he performed tracks off of his recent mixtape “Coloring Book.”
As Chance addressed the crowd, he performed with an astonished look on his face and said “this still doesn’t feel real,” for a kid from 79th street.