Chicago Mayor Walks Out On Chance The Rapper During City Council Meeting

Recording artist Chance the Rapper showed up to a Chicago city council meeting Wednesday to oppose Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to spend $95 million on police academy training in West Garfield Park. The mayor, however, suddenly walked out after the musician took the floor.

Chance the Rapper, born Chancelor Bennett, took center stage at the Chicago City Council during the open-floor portion of the event. The Chicago-based artist then acknowledged the mayor had abruptly exited the meeting before he spoke.

"I guess the mayor had to step out, but it’s cool, it’s cool because I’m here to talk to you guys right now," Chance the Rapper said at the beginning of his dialog, according to the Chicago-Sun Times. "It’s a very simple thing you guys have to do. We should understand financially that this proposed plan doesn’t make sense. We don’t have $95 million, there are a lot of different services that need to be funded."

The 24-year-old talked about the need for more funding to build schools and support the mentally ill. He added that there were "a lot of ways to transform the city that don’t have anything to do with police training."

"We don’t have $95 million," Chance the Rapper lamented. "They are just asking you for $10 million today to purchase the land, but we don’t have the rest of the money to do it, so why let them go ahead with this right now?"

Council members were set to vote on spending $10 million in special taxing district money to fund 30 acres of abandoned land to construct a new police training academy facility.

"I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a victorious day for us if you guys in this meeting put your foot down on something that you know is illogical," he added. "I also don’t want anybody to think I’m trying to take anything away from the West Side. I think the West Side deserves more attention than it’s been getting. I just think that there’s different ways to go about it."

Chance the Rapper, who has been vocal this year regarding public issues, met with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner in March at the Thompson Center to discuss state funding for Chicago Public Schools. He said he was "a little bit flustered" that he got "a lot of vague answers" after the meeting. Raunerd, however, said the pair had a "good exchange of views."