Chance the Rapper Reveals Advice From Lauryn Hill That Changed His Career

Chance the Rapper has shared a personal story about a powerful piece of advice he received from Lauryn Hill. Speaking to Bootleg Kev, the Chicago artist revealed that Hill once urged him to focus on his art rather than commercial opportunities, including his role as a coach on The Voice.

“Lauryn Hill sent me a text one night. I’ll thank her forever,” Chance said. “She said ‘I was watching TV and I saw you were doing the second season of The Voice and I want you to know that in this industry, sometimes a lot of these opportunities, as important as they are financially, there’s nothing more important than your art.’”

Chance explained how deeply the message affected him, saying it moved him to tears. “I’m sure people understand how deep that is coming from Lauryn Hill. I place her pretty high in who I think the greatest artists of all time. That shit made me cry. It broke me down into tears. Remember when J. Cole made ‘Let Nas Down’? I felt that was my ‘Let Nas Down’ moment.”

He added that Hill encouraged him to embrace his creativity more directly. “Lauryn Hill said she’d see me on The Voice again… You better use your pen, baby, use your heart.”

Beyond music, Chance has also been vocal about political issues. Recently, he spoke out against ICE raids carried out under Donald Trump’s administration. Appearing on The Cruz Show, he called the actions “disgusting” and criticized what he views as a culture of fear and helplessness in the face of government power.

“I think we’re just in a space where people are afraid to, I guess, really fight the system. 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 we’re a country built on fighting the system and fighting the power,” he said.

Chance also reflected on his role as an artist in moments of political unrest. “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 tied the sentiment back to his upbringing in Chicago, saying his generation grew up politically active. “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.”

For Chance, Lauryn Hill’s advice and his own political convictions both point to the same principle: using art as a tool for truth and resistance, rather than getting lost in distractions or commercial pursuits.