CHANCE’S BIG CHICAGO VIDEO PLANS
It’s a rap. Sneed has learned Chance the Rapper, a 23- year- old West Chatham native, is making a new music video! The Grammy- winning rapper was spotted at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios on Tuesday to set up a time for shooting the video, which will require a huge cast. “Chance also notified the studio he needed one of the largest soundstages they have because he is going to use 500 people as extras in the music video,” an informed source told Sneed. Chance, wearing a White Sox cap instead of his signature “3” hat — and decked out in jeans — was accompanied by his production manager and his agent. Sneed is also told the date for shooting the video is April 30. Backstory: Chance shot portions of his “Angels” music video at Cinespace, the 65- acre studio located in North Lawndale’s old Ryerson’s Steel Plant, in December 2015. Chance, whose father, Ken Bennett, was an aide to Harold Washington in the 1980s and is a deputy chief of staff to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, will use one of the studio’s largest soundstages. “But he was very hush- hush about the video,” the source said.
Born Chancelor Bennett, he made Grammy Awards history recently for snagging the top prize for best rap album for “Coloring Book,” the first streamed- only album to win. He was nominated in seven categories and also won for best new artist and best rap performance for “No Problem” with rappers 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne.
The Chicago rapper has won acclaim for his often politically charged lyrics since his first full- length mixtape launched him to stardom in 2012 and has kept his hometown front and center in his work.
The music sensation, who donated $ 1 million to the Chicago Public Schools system, recently tweeted he was looking for an intern, “someone with experience in putting together decks and writing proposals.”
Any takers?
Fan alert!
Actor Dwayne Johnson, the “Fast and Furious” star known by his wrestling ring name “The Rock,” will be in town in July and August starring in a video game adaptation flick titled “Rampage,” based on an arcade game.
Body language . . .
It’s one helluva way to get a leg up! The London Daily Mail, a popular Brit tabloid, caused a stir this week by comparing the legs of British Prime Minister Theresa May and First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon during their meeting Monday on the Brexit exit in Glasgow.
“Never mind Brexit, who won Legs- it!,” chirped the headline cover. No surprise.
Backshot: Back in 1979, when I accompanied Mayor Jane Byrne as her press secretary to London to attend the funeral of Lord Mountbatten — who had just been blasted to bits by the IRA — I invited a member of the tabloid press to an interview with her nibs.
The upshot: The headline was about her legs and what kind of high heels she was wearing. The buckshot: It resulted in one of at least 22 times I was told she fired me.
Yum!
Mayor Emanuel and brothers, uber agent Ari and Dr. Zeke — accompanied by their families — took their dad, retired Chicago pediatrician Dr. Benjamin Emanuel, out to brunch at Jam on Sunday morning to celebrate his 90th birthday — and then headed to Pelago for dinner.
Sneedlings . . .
I spy: “Chicago Fire” star and Lady Gaga’s old flame, Taylor Kinney, spotted at Chicago Cut with cast members last week. . . . Ditto for “Chicago Fire” actors Michael Brandt, Kamal Bolden, Jesse Spencer, Eamonn Walker and Jesse Lee Soffer at Chicago Cut on Friday night. . . . NFL legend Joe Montana spotted at Gibsons Steakhouse in Rosemont recently. . . . Today’s birthdays: Celine Dion, 49; Richard Sherman, 29; Thomas Rhett, 27; and a happy belated birthday to Msgr. Kenneth Velo’s mother, Jeanne, 99 and priceless.