onstage during the 2016 ESPYS at Microsoft Theater on July 13, 2016 in Los Angeles, California.
2016By Andrew Bucholtz on

It looks like Chance The Rapper (seen above at the 2016 ESPYs performing in front of a Muhammad Ali backdrop) now isn’t going to be involved with ESPN’s upcoming town hall forum Thursday on athletes, violence and responsibility, or the subsequent special edition of First Take on Friday. Both events take place in Chance’s home city of Chicago, and ESPN’s initial release said he would be a special guest on First Take Friday. Other outlets then started reporting he would be on the forum Thursday as well. However, there’s now no mention of Chance in the ESPN release, and he tweeted Tuesday that these reports were inaccurate:

Here’s a screenshot of the initial release’s mention of Chance:

Chance ESPN

The latest

So, even the initial ESPN release didn’t suggest that Chance would be involved in the forum, but rather the First Take episode the following day. (It seems likely he won’t be in that now either, though, as ESPN’s updated release only mentions Thomas and Dyson.) Some poor reading of initial media reporting may have helped conflate the two events; for example, this Chicago Tribune piece is headlined “Rajon Rondo, Chance the Rapper headline ESPN forums on race and violence,” but makes it clear in the body that Chance is only expected to be on the First Take episode. Alternatively, there may have been someone else spreading false press releases. However it happened, many music media outlets reported that Chance would be on the forum. Here’s an example, from XXL (they’ve since updated, but kept the initial wording below):

The worlds of hip hop and basketball will join together once again when Chance The Rapper, Chicago Bulls point guard Rajon Rondo and Milwaukee Bucks forward Jabari Parker headline ESPN’s upcoming forum on race, gun violence and police this Thursday (Aug. 25). The invitation-only forum, which is titled “An Undefeated Conversation: Athletes, Responsibility and Violence,” will take place at Chi-town’s South Side town hall.

After stating that he wouldn’t be at the forum, Chance elected to send several tweets stating his thoughts on violence and responsibility:

So, although some wires appear to have been crossed here somewhere, people still got to hear Chance’s thoughts on police violence, just not on an ESPN platform. There appear to be no hard feelings, either; Chance finished by tweeting a Kanye meme and saying he had “no issue” with ESPN:

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz