Magnificent Coloring Day Review

Magnificent Coloring Day. Where do I even begin? This was a day that I had been looking forward to ever since I learned of it months ago. When I first saw the lineup on Twitter, I thought it had to be a hoax. Chance the Rapper, Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, John Legend, Tyler, the Creator, Young Thug and Lil Uzi all under the same roof? I had to be there.

After the struggle of finding a ticket, the day was finally here. The weather for the event was absolutely perfect; sunny and 75 degrees. We got there after Francis and the Lights performed, when Lil Uzi was about to take the stage. I'll admit I'm not a huge Uzi fan, but he killed it. His energy was 100, despite being at least a half hour late. 

Next on the lineup was Young Thug. However, he was a no-show. This was incredibly disappointing both because there were no performances to listen to for over an hour and because Young Thug has some good hits that I was looking forward to.

However, I couldn't stay sad for long, because at 3:30 my all-time favorite rapper ever came out: Tyler, the Creator. I've been wanting to see him live ever since I discovered him my freshman year of high school, and he did not fall short of my expectations. And, in true Tyler fashion, he trashed the festival for seating people behind the stage where they were unable to see anything. The only disappointing thing was that looking around, not many people were vibing with Odd Future. But, I suppose they're an acquired taste. 

Five minutes before Tyler's set was supposed to end, his sound was shutoff mid-song. Tyler kind of gave a what the fuck look and walked off the stage as "Father Stretch My Hands" started playing. While I was hoping Kanye would be one of the special guests that Chance had been boasting, I definitely wasn't expecting him to come out so early in the day. But then there he was, Yeezus himself. The crowd broke out into complete hysteria and flew past security to get on the floor level. I of course followed suit and sprinted to the floor to get a better look, and it was so worth it. I've never seen Kanye smile as much as he did when singing "Ultralight Beams" with Chance. Definitely the greatest moment of the entire day.

I didn't pay much attention to John Legend's performance. I took his set as an opportunity to release my bladder and buy cheeseburgers. He has an amazing voice, but I am not familiar with many of his songs, and how do you dance to "All of Me"? The highlight of his set was most definitely the performance of "Glory" with Chicago native Common.

Next was Collagrove (Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz). I was very pleasantly surprised by this set. I had seen Lil Wayne perform a couple years earlier at Tinley Park and thought it was terrible, but this performance truly rocked the stadium. The seats were really filling up here, and everyone knew the words to hits like "Duffel Bag Boy", "Bands A Make Her Dance" and "A Milli". But why the hell did Chance not come out to perform "No Problems" with the duo? 

Alicia Keys was another pleasant surprise of the night. I knew and loved the songs "Empire State of Mind", "Fallin", "No One" and "Girl On Fire", but I couldn't claim to be a true fan. She really blew me away though. With a never-fading smile, she pounded on the piano, belting out every note flawlessly. 

Finally it was time for the main event, the Acid Rapper himself. I had seen Chance at the Chicago Theatre in April and thought he was great, but I was especially excited to see him now that "Coloring Book" was released. I absolutely love every single song off of that album, and believe it to be the greatest album of the year. However, I think the pressure of such a big event got to him. He came out singing "Angels", as could be expected, but the confidence and energy were not there. Throughout his set, he followed a strange story line of "taking it back to the old things that matter" that included multiple puppets. While I appreciate the deeper meaning that Chance was trying to portray, he got too caught up in it too often. And even though his set was only an hour and a half long, he left the stage multiple times, once for 10-15 minutes. He didn't even bring anyone other than the Chicago Children's Choir out during his performance. I figured he would at least bring Young Thug out for "Mixtape" since he had missed his own set, and according to social media was in attendance. The vision for Chance's set was outstanding, and executed better could have been a gold star performance. However, it wasn't.

I left before Skrillex came on, because it's Skrillex, and who the hell actually wants to listen to Skrillex for an hour?

Magnificent Coloring Day was, by far, the greatest musical experience of my life. And, while I was disappointed with Chance's performance, I did cry real tears during "Same Drugs". I think it was simply a matter of him not having much experience playing huge venues like The Cell. However, the bigger picture of this event must be noted. Maintaining his status as Chicago's golden boy, Chance held the first music festival on the South Side of Chicago, and sold out U.S. Cellular Field. He also sold the tickets relatively cheap so those of all economic statuses could attend, and even hunted down scalpers to get the tickets they had taken back. Chance the Rapper is an amazing musician, and an even more amazing human being. Chicago is lucky to have him.