Rapper Chancelor Johnathan Bennett, better known as Chance the Rapper, said Friday that he was not aligning himself with President Trump when he tweeted that black people don’t have to be Democrats.
“I’d never support anyone who has made a career out of hatred, racism, and discrimination. … I understand why people are disappointed with my words, but I was raised to believe actions speak louder than words. So let my apology be seen in my future works,” Chance said in a statement posted to Twitter Friday.
My fault yo pic.twitter.com/TIWhG8o1ST
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) April 27, 2018
Chance said that when he tweeted defending fellow rapper Kanye West’s support of Trump and his policies, he was supporting his friend and mentor’s right to have his own opinion and not have people attack him for it.
“My statement about black folks not having to be democrats (though true) was a deflection from the real conversation and stemmed from a personal issue with the fact that Chicago has had generations of democratic officials with no investment or regard for black schools, neighborhoods, or black lives,” Chance said, adding that his statement may have come at the worst time.
Trump took Chance’s earlier tweet about blacks and Democrats as support for Kanye’s comments and said in a Friday tweet that Chance understood that Trump had created the lowest black and Hispanic unemployment in history.
However, Chance said that was not what he was insinuating with his Wednesday tweet.
Nah that aint it yo https://t.co/hqA1NYGxE2
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) April 27, 2018
