Chance the Rapper, left, and Chief Keef, right, represents two different sides to rap music coming out of Chicago. (Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, Chris Walker / Chicago Tribune)
A Chicago Tribune article profiling the divergent styles and backgrounds of Chance the Rapper and Chief Keef cites figures from an early 2017 report by the UIC Great Cities Institute on youth unemployment in Chicago and Cook County.
An exodus of residents, the Great Recession and the ravages of drug and gang wars have left deserted blocks and broken families in an already-debt ridden city and state. With few jobs or opportunities in their neighborhoods, nearly half of the city’s black men between 20 and 24 (Chance and Chief Keef’s age group) don’t have jobs and aren’t in college, according to a report from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Great Cities Institute.
