CBS aired the 69th annual Emmy Awards from Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday night (September 17), and with late-night regular Stephen Colbert playing host - in a year during which he's contributed to the highly charged political atmosphere - the evening did carry on with an expected tone of dissent. And that social justice spirit came from a myriad of voices, including Chicago's most recent Grammy Award-winning emcee, Chance The Rapper.
Fans of the rapper didn't need to wait long to be sprung upon with the surprise, as Chance made a cameo during Colbert's opening number. Chance spit a freestyle threaded with wordplay that was consistent with the theme Colbert foreshadowed with the line, "The world might be the worst we've ever seen, but it's never been better on the TV screen." Ultimately, the Coloring Book rapper mixed it up by acknowledging the ceremony as a couple of hours to tune out some of the distressing developments around the nation and the globe but brought it home by encouraging listeners to become pro-active in helping address the state of things.
"I love television, it's a pleasant distraction/But just imagine taking action/I like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, in fact, I'm addicted/But where's the cop show where one gets convicted?" Chance incorporated some of today's hottest show titles, to say. He then closed his verse by spitting: "I get it, them finales, they got you focused/But just record the show and show up at the protest."
Chance wasn't simply some cross-entertainment feature of the night. He was actually one of the Emmy's nominees, with a Saturday Night Live skit in homage to Run-DMC's "Christmas in Hollis" classic losing out to Common's "Letter to the Free" (of Ava DuVernay's '13th') for best original music and lyrics.
