Chance the Rapper Claims James Blake Ditched Him on Mansion Lease, Blake Denies It
In 2013, Chance the Rapper hopped on a remix of James Blake’s Overgrown track “Life Round Here.” Around the same time, Chance told various media outlets that he and Blake were moving in together in Los Angeles. Chance even shared a selfie with Blake in February 2014, captioned, “All settled in the new crib. And there’s a fire pit on my balcony. @jamesblake.” Now, in a new interview with GQ, Chance has revisited the time he spent in L.A. He said that he and Blake signed a lease together on a “big-ass rapper mansion” in North Hollywood and called it “Koi Kastle.” But, GQ reports, ultimately, “Blake removed himself from the lease and left Chance to pay the whole rent.” Blake, however, would beg to differ.
GQ could not reach James Blake before publication, but he gave them a statement after their story was printed, denying that he ever lived with Chance. He said, “We’d very loosely and playfully daydreamed about getting somewhere to live/work for a little while, but never discussed specifics.” Blake added that he was not aware that he was on the lease: “I turned up and he told me my name was on the lease, which was creepy because I’d never signed anything. I’d never and still have never heard of Koi Kastle, had never seen a picture of the home and had never been to or known the existence of the area it was in.”
All settled in the new crib. And there’s a fire pit on my balcony. @jamesblake
A photo posted by Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) on Feb 3, 2014 at 7:47pm PST
Elsewhere in the interview, Chance said that while living in Koi Kastle, Frank Ocean used to come by and hang out. “I was on a date one time at the crib, and we’re sitting in the front room, maybe rolling up some weed or something,” he recalled. “And then Frank just comes up and starts playing the piano and lightly singing in the background of our date. Obviously, that scored me a lot of points with this female.”
Chance also said that the Obama family is “bumping Coloring Book hard” in the White House. Chance, whose father worked for Barack Obama when he was an Illinois state senator, said Obama told him that Malia is a fan of the mixtape. “Malia listens to Coloring Book. And I send them stuff sometimes,” he said. Chance added that he and Obama “had a really good conversation about what [he] was working on,” and that the president told him he “needed to start selling [his] music.”
Obama included Chance on his 2016 Summer Playlist, but did not include any Coloring Book tracks. Instead, Obama opted for Acid Rap highlight “Acid Rain.”
Read the full GQ interview here.
Read “Charting Chance the Rapper’s Unsigned Success” on the Pitch.
Watch James Blake and Chance the Rapper’s “Life Round Here” video:
Recent Comments