On Tuesday (Aug 16), Chance the Rapper announced RapperRadio.com, a crowd-sourced campaign to help get independent artists on the radio across the country.
The format launched with a simple interface: fans type in the name of the city they are in, and the site produces suggestions of local radio stations (for example, Hot 97 and Power 105.1 in New York City). Fans click the station they want and are provided a suggested tweet tagging the station’s Twitter account and requesting the track with a link back to the initial site. Currently, the two songs available to request through the service are “Summer Friends” feat. Jeremih and Francis & the Lights and “No Problem” feat. Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz, both from Chance’s latest release Coloring Book. (“No Problem,” it should be noted, has been getting plenty of radio love since its release; it’s currently on both the R&B Hip-Hop Songs Airplay and Rap Songs Airplay charts.)
“I want you to share my music in whatever city you’re in with as many people as possible,” Chance wrote on Twitter, using the hashtag #optioncee. “The radio is like a huge listening party for people of all demographics to get in tune. In those moments it’s mad ppl in harmony.”
Chance wasted no time kicking things off. Seventeen minutes after first tweeting the link, the site crashed briefly, while within the first two hours Chance’s songs were played on KMEL 106 in San Francisco, K 97.5 in North Carolina, Power 98.3 in Phoenix and U 92.5 in Salt Lake City, among others, according to several tweets from stations.
But don’t expect Rapper Radio to be just a brief experiment; Chance seems intent on broadening the initiative to other independent artists and music beyond his own.
“It’s time to really show ppl what independent music can do,” he added on Twitter. “Let the stations know that we are here and independent music is not going anywhere.”
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