The release of Spike Lee's Chi-Raq film today (December 4) has been met with adversity from members of the Chicago hip-hop community. Earlier, King Louie critiqued the movie with his "Fuck Spike Lee" single, and now Chance the Rapper has taken to Twitter to call the film "exploitive and problematic."
Lee's film is a modern-day adaptation of Greek comedy Lysistrata, a piece in which the women of Athens and Sparta withhold sex from their men to stop fighting between the clans. The same principle has been applied to Chi-Raq, though it switches locales to the gun violence-stricken streets of present day Chicago.
Taking issue with the updated plot points, Chance the Rapper explained over Twitter today that he's not a fan of Lee's latest parable, calling it "goofy" and not made to "Save Lives." He's also taken offence to the film having been made by people that don't live in Chicago, among other things.
"Also the idea that women abstaining from sex would stop murders is offensive and a slap in the face to any mother that lost a child here," he added, reflecting on the mass impact of gun violence on Chicago over the last few years.
Chance the Rapper had previously raised awareness of the city's violence by using the #SaveChicago hashtag over Twitter for the past two Memorial Day Weekends. He's shown support to Vic Mensa for protesting Chicago resident Laquan McDonald's murder at the hands of the police in 2014.
Chance has also been active in his community by staging after-school open mics for youths.
You'll find his tweets down below.
Lee's film is a modern-day adaptation of Greek comedy Lysistrata, a piece in which the women of Athens and Sparta withhold sex from their men to stop fighting between the clans. The same principle has been applied to Chi-Raq, though it switches locales to the gun violence-stricken streets of present day Chicago.
Taking issue with the updated plot points, Chance the Rapper explained over Twitter today that he's not a fan of Lee's latest parable, calling it "goofy" and not made to "Save Lives." He's also taken offence to the film having been made by people that don't live in Chicago, among other things.
"Also the idea that women abstaining from sex would stop murders is offensive and a slap in the face to any mother that lost a child here," he added, reflecting on the mass impact of gun violence on Chicago over the last few years.
Chance the Rapper had previously raised awareness of the city's violence by using the #SaveChicago hashtag over Twitter for the past two Memorial Day Weekends. He's shown support to Vic Mensa for protesting Chicago resident Laquan McDonald's murder at the hands of the police in 2014.
Chance has also been active in his community by staging after-school open mics for youths.
You'll find his tweets down below.
Let me be the one from Chicago to personally tell you we not supporting this film out here
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 4, 2015That shit get ZERO love out here. Shit is goofy and it's a bunch of ppl from NOT around here telling u to support that shit
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 4, 2015The people that made that shit didn't do so to "Save Lives". It's exploitive and problematic
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 4, 2015Also the idea that women abstaining from sex would stop murders is offensive and a slap in the face to any mother that lost a child here
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 4, 2015You don't do any work with the children of Chicago, You don't live here, you've never watched someone die here. Don't tell me to be calm
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) December 4, 2015
