Chance the Rapper uploaded 10 Day and Acid Rap — his mixtapes from 2012 and 2013, respectively — to all streaming platforms on Friday (June 28), coinciding with the pre-order date of his forthcoming debut album, set to drop in July. While the re-release brings much of the Chicago-born artist’s catalogue into the streaming era, it doesn’t carry over one of the biggest hits from Acid Rap with it.
Rather than hearing the usual opening bouncy chords and singsongy vocals on the breakout project’s fifth track, “Juice,” listeners are greeted by a spoken-word explanation from Chance himself, detailing the reasoning behind the song’s absence. “I really wanted ‘Juice’ to be on the mixtape, but I couldn’t get it cleared in time,” he says, referring to the Donny Hathaway “Jealous Guy” sample — originally written by John Lennon — that serves as the backdrop for the beat. (Lennon’s work has rarely been approved for sample clearances following his death in 1980.)
Instead of simply skipping the track due to clearance issues, he utilized the moment as an opportunity to take charitable action: all streaming proceeds for the alternate version of “Juice” go to SocialWorks, the non-profit founded by the rapper in 2016 that aims to empower Chicago youth through the arts, education and civic engagement. However, since Spotify officially defines a counted stream as “when a song is streamed for over 30 seconds,” listeners must play the explanation in full — the length of the track is exactly 30 seconds — for any funding to accrue. “So run this back, and play it all the way through,” Chance commands fans on the track.
“I figured that since the song could not get cleared in time it was a good way to raise money,” Chance tells Billboard.
While there’s always a chance that the sample gets cleared later and that the original version of “Juice” makes its way onto streaming platforms, at present, the absence of the popular, infectious call-and-response jam diminishes its opportunity to experience second wind success and its potential to surface on the Billboard charts for the first time.
There have already been several examples of favorites from artists’ catalogues spiking after entering platforms like Apple Music and Spotify: Drake’s So Far Gone hit No. 5 on the Billboard 200 in February after its upload; Beyoncé’s Lemonade re-entered the top ten. To date, Chance the Rapper’s highest entry on the Billboard 200 comes at No. 8 for his 2016 Grammy-award winning effort, Coloring Book.