Chancelor Bennett aka Chance The Rapper is an American hip-hop artist/rapper who has quickly become a household name. Even though his fame may have seemed overnight like most rising stars, he has been working hard at his career since 2011. He started rising in fame in 2013 after the release of his mix tape "Acid rap". I have not personally known of Chance until his newest mix tape came out titled “Coloring Book”. I am not usually one to listen to new hip hop music. When my husband started playing the mix tape all of the time I couldn’t help but fall in love with the smooth rhymes and jazzy trumpet feel. But what struck me most was his clever biblical references and strong message of God’s love and presence in his life. His biblical references aren’t simple little quotes of scripture from the bible either. Many of his rhymes are clever well thought out theological references. I am here to break down some of his hidden biblical rhymes.
1. How Great
If the title doesn’t give it away, this song has the popular contemporary Christian hymn “How great is our God playing for almost three minutes out of the 5:37 second song. The popular lyric goes “How great is our God, name above all names, worthy of all praise, my heart will sing how great is our God. Growing up in the church, I knew this song like the back of my hand.
2. How Great: “The book don’t end with Malachi”
Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament. The fact that chance says the book ( The book as in the bible) does not end with Malachi shows that he is a Christian, believing in the New Testament which tells of Jesus teachings and sacrifice for mankind.
3. How Great: Shabach, Barak, Edify
These words are Hebrew, (fun fact the bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek originally). God’s chosen people were also Hebrews. Much of our English text in our bibles are often broken down into Hebrew and Greek to better understand the context and meaning. The meanings of the Hebrew words in his song are: Shabach: Praise, Barak: Blessings, Edify: to be made Holy
4. How Great: “With the faith of a pumpkin sized mustard seed”
.
In Matthew 17:20 Jesus tells his disciples that they only need faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains. He was telling them that they only needed a small amount of faith. When Chance says a pumpkin sized mustard seed he is saying that he has faith. A pumpkin seed is naturally larger than a mustard seed so he is saying he has a lot of faith but also conveying it isn’t easy.
5. Blessings: “When the praises go up, the blessings come down”.
Chance repeats this line over and over again in this song and it’s easy to shrug off the strength the words have. It is easy to praise God in the good times but I find when you praise God in the bad times you find true blessing. God gives you the ability to look beyond your circumstances.
6. Blessings: “He has ordered my steps, gave me a sword with a crest”
The first part of this lyric is referencing a scripture verse in Psalms. Psalm 119:133 “Order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me”. There are also a few other verses similar to this one such as Psalm 37:23, Proverbs 16:19. The next part, “gave me a sword with a crest” references Ephesian 6:17 “ The helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,which is the word of God.” In Ephesians God teaches on the armor of God. He instructs us to put on our spiritual armor every day to be able to fight against evil.
7. Blessings: “I'm feeling shortness of breath, so Nico grab you a horn
Hit Jericho with a buzzer beater to end a quarter
Watch brick and mortar fall like dripping water, ugh”!
In this lyric the overall message comes from Joshua 6 which tells the story of Jericho. In the story Jesus promises the land of Jericho to his people. However, this promise seems impossible when they come face to face with the heavily fortified city of Jericho and its great walls. God instructed them to march around the city once every day for 6 days blowing trumpets. On the seventh day they were to march around seven times, blow the horns, and give a shout of praise and the walls would fall flat. It makes sense when chance says “Nico (aka Donnie Trumpet) grab you a horn, since he plays trumpet throughout the song. By referencing the wall of Jericho he is saying that with faith God can knock down any wall and make all things possible.
8. Ultralight Beam: “I laugh in my head cause I bet my ex looking back like a pillar of salt Ugh!”
This line is a bit of a double entendre because in one sense Chance is saying that is ex must feel very salty for breaking up with him before he reached stardom. In another sense he is making another biblical reference to Lot’s wife in the Old Testament. Lot was Abraham’s nephew and he and his family were fleeing the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. They were instructed by angles to not look back and flee the city but Lot’s wife disobeyed and consequently was turned into a pillar of salt.
9. XXL Freshman Freestyle (class of 2014)
I suggest you just listen to this whole song/ freestyle. The song is all about Chances close relationship with God. For example the opening line is scripture from Isaiah 54:17 “No weapon formed against me shall prosper”. My favorite line is, “this a house of God
I'm just leasing, he rent it to me
This sentence he penned it too
That's a Gmail, he sent it to me
I can send you his contact, hit him if you in combat”.
I love how it shows the dynamic between Chance and God. Chance will hit up God whenever and I believe that is how it should be. He says, “I can send you his contact, Hit him if you in combat” That line references Ephesians 6 again that touches on the armor of God and the spiritual battle we all face. As Christians we are constantly at battle between good and evil. I like how he says if you’re in combat to contact God because God died so he could fight for us and give us victory.
There are many more examples of biblical references and signs of faith in Chances music. What I love most about his music is his authenticity, and his passion to shine the light and use the platform God gave him to reach people. Now a days I feel like people have gotten so judgmental. If you don’t fit the cookie cutter Christian mold 100% people feel they have a right to judge you. Chance reminds me that it’s not about what you look like or appear to look like in the eyes of others, but how God sees you and the pureness and authenticity of your heart.
