On a recent stop at the Bootleg Kev Podcast, Chance the Rapper opened up about a little-known story behind one of his trademark sounds—and how the late Mac Miller played an unexpected role in shaping it.
Chance recalled being an untested teenager in Los Angeles, still unknown outside of Chicago, while working on his breakout mixtape 10 Day. The trip marked one of his first opportunities to record in a professional studio, thanks to producer Chuck Inglish of The Cool Kids. The weight of the moment wasn’t lost on him.
“I’m standing in the booth… my first time in a real studio in L.A.,” Chance explained. “I feel, you know, a lot of weight on it.” He was attempting to record the opening track of 10 Day, “14,400 Minutes,” when nerves began to creep in. “I’m trying to, like, charge up and I’m going, ‘ah, ah!’” he recalled. What he considered a nervous tic, brought on by anxiety and hyperactivity, almost derailed the take.
Then came a voice of reassurance. Mac Miller, who had slipped into the control room, urged through the intercom that Chance keep the spontaneous vocalization on the track.
“Mac told somebody to tell me… to keep that at the beginning,” Chance remembered. “That’s hot.”
Chance The Rapper & Mac Miller
What Chance initially dismissed as an embarrassing slip instead became his now-familiar ad-lib. That encouragement, he said, turned a moment of insecurity into an artistic breakthrough. “I don’t even know why I never told that story,” he admitted.
Looking back, Chance credited Inglish for bringing him into the room and giving him a chance to learn as “the little brother… with no name at that time.” But it was Mac’s affirmation, he emphasized, that helped spark a lasting piece of his creative identity.
In the years that followed, Chance toured and collaborated with both Inglish and Miller, building bonds that stretched beyond the studio. Yet that early exchange, he said, still stands out.
For Chance, it underscored not only Mac Miller’s instinct for artistry but also his generosity of spirit—qualities that continue to define his legacy among peers.
