Amid his meteoric rise to fame, Chance the Rapper has always done things his way by refusing to sign with a record label. However, it's not due to a lack of interest. "I've met with every A&R, VP of A&R, president of the labels, CEOs," he told Fader in 2015 (via Insider). "I know all these people." Basically, Chance has had the necessary connections — he's simply chosen not to use them.

Luckily, some execs have supported the singer-songwriter in his unlikely route to success: "They're almost like, 'Keep going. You're in uncharted territory, and you're helping to shed light on what [the future of the business] will look like, and we're all curious.'" But others have unfortunately been less kind. Chance later shared the downsides of going against the grain while speaking with Complex, alleging that certain labels have tried to stump his growth by doing things like "push [him] out of headline positions so that their artist could be a headliner or not cleared songs."

"It's not like a big conspiracy theory," Chance assured, noting that some record label execs are upset because they "wanted to make money off me and I said no," while others don't like that he's admittedly advised friends from signing with certain people. "When they hear that back, then they tell other people bad s**t about me." Yikes.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7XCpKCsr5mbwW%2BvzqZmam5jZoZ1e9OhnGatnqm8rbCMramurJhivKd5wqGYp5uVYsGpsYyrmKmolad8