REVIEW: Chance the Rapper. "Coloring Book 10 Year Anniversary Tour"
I had the opportunity to see Chance the Rapper last year for his And We Back tour, which was mostly to promote his new album at the time, Star Line. Admittedly, I wasn't a huge fan of Star Line, but Coloring Book has such a special place in my heart, and since many consider that album to be his Magnum Opus, I leapt at the opportunity to see him live when he announced the tour in 2025 (assuming, correctly, that he would probably perform the most popular tracks from Coloring Book). I wasn't disappointed; nearly 20% of his setlist was from Coloring Book. The show itself was pretty strong; multiple set pieces, colorful animations on the projection screen, interesting tangents and interludes, and an overall attitude of gratitude that emanated from Chance kept me engaged for the entire 2025 show. So imagine how excited I was when I saw that he announced ANOTHER concert for 2026 - specifically to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Coloring Book album.
I wish I could say the excitement I had for the show this time around was warranted.
Chancelor Johnathan Bennett was born in Chicago in 1993 and raised on the infamous South Side of the city. His family was quite involved in politics; his father was an aide to Harold Washington and, yes, Barack Obama. His mother worked under the Illinois attorney general while also running a successful hair salon in the South Side. Since an early age, Chance has stated he always took an interest to music. He has commented in the past that what drew him to the rap scene (after growing up listening to Michael Jackson exclusively on cassette tapes) was hearing Kanye West's early career song "Through the Wire" on the radio while walking through Hyde Park. Chance has said on record how Kanye has greatly influenced both him, his affinity for rap, and his rap style. During both his 2025 and 2026 tour, Chance sang Ultralight Beam, a song in which he is featured on Kanye's 2016 album The Life of Pablo (otherwise known as the last Kanye album anyone is allowed to listen to in Kanye's discography before you risk being cancelled by your peers... rightfully so). It was during this moment of the show that made Kanye's influence on Chance's style all the more apparent; Chance has always been able to pull from his influences but spin it to make it his own. He had a really strong trajectory as well; his first project, a mixtape named Acid Rap, was met with critical acclaim and has since been considered part of the pop culture mainstream. His next album, Coloring Book, was met with widespread commercial success AND critical acclaim, taking home 3 Grammys for the project that year. What made this album so popular, however, was the fact that Chance released it while not being signed to any major record label. It almost felt like a huge "fuck you" to the music industry Machine; Chance was able to find his own way, carve out his own style and brand in a crowded genre, and put out a terrific project without the help of massive music production corporations using their commercial connections to promote the project - he simply "coasted" (I use the word coasted VERY lightly) on his immense talent.
Infamously, his next project, The Big Day, (his first project tied to a record label) was a massive flop. The project felt rushed, the production was weak, and the lyrics were... really bizarre. Star Line wasn't really any better (in my opinion). Star Line felt too much like he was trying to relive the glory days of Coloring Book without providing the depth or insight that Coloring Book brought to the table (save for a few standout songs, like No More Old Men). I was hesitant to attend his Star Line-focused 2025 tour (which, as a reminder, was called the And We Back Tour) for this reason, but I'm still glad I went; Chance demonstrated his skill on the stage as a strong, funny, and talented performer, seamlessly moving through each song during the show, adding in basic but interesting set pieces as well. At one point, Chance put himself into a cube in which the edges lit up while singing ballads, which I thought was an interesting choice.
It made comparing that show to his most recent performance... disappointing to say the least. Let's get into it!
Strengths
I mean, it's only fair to start off any critical review on the positive side! And despite my disappointment in the show, I still have a lot of good things to say about Mr. Rapper.
I'll start with the more vague, general strengths. Firstly, Chance's attitude the entire show was infectiously optimistic and positive; he stopped several times during the show to express how thankful he was for the success of Coloring Book and the joy that it has brought millions of people worldwide. He took a huge risk publishing that work with no major label backing; luckily, the risk really paid off, and he made sure he consistently told the audience how thankful he was for that. 10 years after the release of this album and he is still able to almost completely sell out a 5,000-person capacity music hall, which is NO easy feat. It just goes to show the legacy and impact that Coloring Book has left on a generation of music listeners.
Second major, more general strength was Chance's engagement with the audience. Chance knows not only how to address a large crowd, but keep them entertained. While Fetty Wap would single out a few people from the crowd for the entertainment of the rest, Chance kept it more broad, chatting with the audience by addressing everyone at once, making for a more fun and unified experience. He kept it lighthearted for most of the show, which I think elevated the experience greatly. Coloring Book does deal with some heavy themes, but in general, it's a fun album, so I'm glad he chose to keep that attitude for this show.
More specific strengths included: Chance's inclusion of an auto-tune mic. I find that sometimes using these can become really annoying or gimmick-y really quickly, but Chance included it and made it very clear that he was doing it as a gimmick, which made it more fun, like he was in on the joke too. He knew how silly he sounded on the auto-tune mic, and made a point to ham it up a bit for the audience for a few songs, which made the experience more enjoyable. Chance also has incredible freestyle skills; he showed them off a couple of times throughout the show which left my mouth agape. It always astonishes me how some rappers can just spit crazy bars from seemingly nowhere with nothing but a simple beat.
I'll just add that Chance performed "I'm The One" and it was absolutely ELECTRIC. I totally forgot he was on that song until he started to perform it! He also performed "Ultralight Beam" which I thought was the only appropriate time for me to feel like I was in a megachurch; it unfortunately was not the only time I felt this way during his set.
Overall, these strengths help to offset the weaknesses of the show, of which unfortunately I thought there were many GLARING ones.
Weaknesses
It's going to really pain me to write this section because I have so much respect and adoration for Chance and Coloring Book. That album holds such a special place in my heart because of the age and space I was in when the singles for the album started to come out (2016: a sophomore in college at UNC, just learning how to both handle my liquor and sneak into bars underage. Specifically, every time I hear "No Problem", I have flashbacks to my friend Sarah Beth and I climbing on top of a pool table at Country Fried Duck, six $1 long island iced teas deep, and feeling no fear of what our futures held).
First, and probably the most damning: HOW DO YOU TOUR FOR AN ALBUM'S ANNIVERSARY AND NOT PLAY THE ENTIRE ALBUM IN ORDER? That creative decision absolutely baffled me. I get that a lot of the most popular songs off Coloring Book are at the beginning or in the middle and an artist may want to save them for the end of the show to keep people around, but I paid money to go to the COLORING BOOK anniversary tour, so I expected him to play COLORING BOOK in its entirety from beginning to end. Out of all the anniversary tours I have attended (which have been several), this is the first show I have seen in which the album that the artist is touring for (SPECIFICALLY for the anniversary) isn't played in order. The purpose of anniversary tours, in my opinion, is for the creator of the album and listener to experience the album as it was released, as if you were both listening to it together for the first time to relive the high that you felt as you went from track to track. Cutting up the album and changing the order ruins that experience. I believe Chance should've taken a note from My Chemical Romance, Weezer, Turnover, or even Halsey, and played other songs from his discography before or after playing the album in full. How amazing would it have been to have ended the show with "Blessings" like on the album (versus "Same Drugs", which is how he ended the show. Don't get me wrong, AMAZING song, but as a closer? Kind of an odd choice..). Not having played the album in its entirety and in order took me way out of the moment, and honestly, made me a little mad! I came to hear "All We Got" transition into "No Problem" and NOT be interrupted by "Link Me In The Future".
I appreciate that Chance may have taken a creative risk by performing the album out of order, but to semi-quote the great Marnie Michaels from HBO's Girls: I AM going to hate on the girl who took a risk and put herself out there creatively. What a baffling and poor choice of setlist order if you ask me. At least he played every song off the album!
Another disappointing creative choice was just how bland the stage setup and screen imagery were for the show. It felt like I was watching a high school talent show at times, and in a low-budget megachurch at other times (and not in the fun, jumping-out-of-your-seat-singing kind of church, but the bizarre, cult-like megachurch). There was a large screen behind Chance but it felt barely utilized. The images that were put on the screen were not interesting or eye-catching whatsoever, and hardly seemed to match the vibe of whatever song Chance was singing at the time. It was a disappointment especially compared to last year's show (WHICH I USED IN MY REVIEW OF FETTY WAP TO HIGHLIGHT WHAT A PERFORMER SHOULD DO WHEN USING A BARE-MINIMUM SETUP). There were also no stage props or anything used at all; it was just Chance up on that stage, and I don't believe Chance is the performer that can just stand on stage and sing or rap; he needs SOMETHING to really elevate his performance. The gimmick-y (I say in a complimentary manner) autotune mic was a good start, but I think Chance needed more physical props to really elevate this show. Maybe I'm just saying that because the visuals were severely lacking. The world will never know. Regardless, it's probably not a good thing if I'm having flashbacks to watching my high school's spring musical show in 2015 while attending a Chance the Rapper concert.
The lack of interesting visuals or stage props was such a stark contrast when comparing this to his 2025 tour. Parts of this show felt slapped together haphazardly. Chance and the Coloring Book album are so... colorful and cheery. Why didn't the anniversary tour for that album feel the same way? I know that the expectations for touring artists have changed so much over the last few years (tours have become much more spectacular and grand, especially arena and stadium tours), but I'd like to think that's in part because of rising ticket costs. If I had paid $20 for this show, this review would be MUCH different, but that's not the case here. Seats were selling for as much as $100 for Chance! For $100 I would expect a much grander experience than the one we got. I just want to note that comment is not to imply Chance the Rapper isn't worth $100 admission, I'm just saying that I expected more from the production based on the average face-value ticket cost I was seeing when deciding where to sit for the show.
Final thoughts
Man, oh man, I really love this guy, so it breaks my heart to have to write a review with more weaknesses than strengths. But Chance, my guy, you proved last year for your And We Back tour (and frankly, with the Coloring Book album) that you can accomplish so much with so little. Why did this tour feel so... slapped together and poorly planned? Your heart just didn't seem as in it this time around, despite your infectious attitude of gratitude and overall positive demeanor. Maybe you just weren't feeling Boston this time around? Maybe you were having an off day?
I'm not quite sure if I would see Chance again, to be honest - but let me be very clear: I have absolutely no regrets paying to see him at all. He's clearly very charismatic and easy to root for, and his early work will always hold a special place in my heart, but this show was too disappointing to warrant another trip with Mr. Cocoa Butter Kisses. I'm giving this show a 2.5 out of 5.
