Chance The Rapper is thinking about shortening the name that made him famous. During an episode of Raven-Symoné and Miranda Maday's Tea Time podcast published Thursday, October 1, 2026, the Chicago artist said he wants to keep the second half of his moniker and let go of the first. The remark came about 20 minutes into the conversation, and it reframes a debate fans have had about his name for most of his career.
What Chance Said
For years, people had pushed him to drop "The Rapper" from his name and simply go by Chance. He wants to do the opposite.
"I'm gonna take off the 'Chance.' I just wanna be The Rapper. It's been something that I've been thinking about a lot."
He framed the choice around his love of language and craft, saying the writing and the performing are central to who he is as an artist.
"I really love words. I think the greatest rappers like myself are etymologists and linguists at heart, people that really just love language."
Why He Wants to Lose "Chance"
He explained that the "Chance" side of the name has long stood for the personal, confessional songs that opened up his private life, from his family to his faith to his relationships. He said he feels less pulled toward that mode now.
"I give a lot of vulnerability and looks into my life, what's going on in my life, relationships, just my whole self sometimes. And I don't love that as much now as I love just working within the genre and attacking things that aren't necessarily so close to me sometimes."
He added that he wants to "carry rap the same way that rap has carried me through life," positioning the shift as a move toward the art form itself rather than toward his own biography. For an artist whose breakout work turned diary entries into anthems, dropping the first name reads as a deliberate step away from the personal brand he built.
Where He Is Right Now
The comments arrive while Chance The Rapper is on the road for the 10 year anniversary tour of his 2016 project Coloring Book, the release that won the Grammy for Best Rap Album and helped prove an independent artist could reach that level without signing a traditional label deal. Revisiting that album nightly puts him face to face with the version of himself the "Chance" name represents.
He has not announced an official name change or a date for one, and he did not say whether future music would carry the shorter billing. For now it is a stated intention, shared on a podcast, from an artist who says he has been weighing it for a while. Fans will likely get a clearer answer whenever his next body of work arrives.
