Chance The Rapper vs. MTV: What Really Went Down

Back in October 2016, then-MTV News staffer David Turner wrote a review criticizing a performance Chance gave at a music festival in Queens, New York. The piece evolved into a general criticism of the rapper, and Turner said he felt an "emotional disconnect" while listening to Chance's album, "Coloring Book."

Upon learning about the piece via Snapchat Discover, Chance's reps told execs at MTV network that the rapper was "never working with MTV again," according to a report in SPIN.

At the urging of MTV's music and talent division, MTV News Editorial Director of Music Jessica Hopper unpublished Turner's piece from MTV's site and scrubbed the article from all of MTV's social media, despite her belief that the piece was "a fair and reasoned piece of criticism."

In Slack messages obtained by SPIN, Hopper told her team that "Chance and his management became aware of David's piece via the repost on Snapchat Discover and subsequently told MTV, amid high-level negotiations for linear specials, that he was never working with MTV again because of it."

Here is the message in its entirety:

"Since some of you know a little about this already, just wanted to explain why we took down David's Chance piece, for the sake of transparency. This information is to stay in this channel, this group. Chance and his management became aware of David's piece via the repost on Snapchat Discover and subsequently told MTV, amid high level negotiations for linear specials, that he was never working with MTV again because of it. M&T asked us to unpublished and scrub it from social media as they attempt to repair this with him and his management. It is upsetting for obvious journalistic reasons—we stand behind everything we publish. Right now, we are unsure how it may impact Chance-related projects both in and outside of News if the relationship cannot be repaired. Everyone agrees it was a fair and reasoned piece of criticism, a rare note of dissent in the face of six other positive pieces of coverage—and so we are hoping for a reasonable outcome. If you have any questions, all of you have my email/DM/phone, please do not hesitate to reach out."

But Chance's manager Pat Corcoran disputes SPIN's claims, saying that the rapper felt the article was "offensive," but that they never ordered MTV to remove the piece. "MTV chose to, on their own volition."

"Upon the publication of the article, Chance and I got together & both agreed that the article was offensive,” Corcoran wrote. “When we brought our concerns to MTV, our rep agreed that the article was “a harsh shot” & took ownership of the editorial misstep. From there, MTV chose to, on their own volition, to remove the piece. We have a long history with MTV, which we cherish. You may notice, Chance will be appearing in the season opener of Wild 'N Out tmw night (6/29) on MTV."

In December, Turner posted the article to Medium, where it remains live.