From nabbing seven 2017 Grammy nominations (of which he won three) to accepting the Humanitarian award at the 2017 BET Awards, Chance the Rapper has turned the music industry on its head, all while carving out a truly unique path to success. On Wednesday morning (Aug. 9), Chance made an appearance on the NPR podcast What's Good with Stretch & Bobbito, where he discussed everything from politics to stereotypes in hip-hop. 

Towards the beginning of the conversation, Chance touched on how Kanye West's transparency helped him to embrace his image.

"The fact that it's able to be a main stage or mainstream image and accepted and celebrated is because of folks like Kanye who came in the game and was like, 'This is who I am, and these are the type of things that I love, and I'm excited about them, and I don't necessarily have to carry myself as anybody that I'm not," he told the duo about Ye's role in pushing rap into the mainstream. "I'm lucky to be in a space where I've been accepted for who I am and celebrated for who I am."

Narratives are an important facet of an artist's identity and Chance lamented that there's pressure to maintain a "hard" persona in hip-hop.

"I think there's just always been a quiet conversation and joke that if you're not if you're not hard, if you're not from an impoverished neighborhood, if you're not certain constructs of a black stereotype, then you're not black," he continued. "N----s kinda ran with that in the '90s I think, and that's why there were so many fabricated hood n----s. But now, a lot of black people have a lot more pride in being who they are, and understanding that is part of the black experience, is living and being who you are."

Chance is well aware of the power and influence he has in music and asserted that, "I just have a larger platform than all platforms. I have a bigger voice than Donald Trump, than literally anybody who works in politics." The "No Problems" rapper, who has donated $1 million to Chicago schools, continued, "I can connect with people on the level of appealing as a person who is still being a citizen, as a person who does what he wants. But I have ideas on how to voice opinions and ideas that other people just don’t have.”

Listen to Chance's interview with Stretch & Bobbito below: