Here’s What It’s Like To Intern For Chance The Rapper
Burak Cingi/Redferns
Back in September, Chance the Rapper announced that he was looking to hire an intern, specifically “someone with experience in putting together decks and writing proposals,” and within minutes thousands of eager fans replied to the rapper’s tweet with resumes, and countless reasons why they would be the perfect contender for the job.
But it wasn’t the Ivy league law students or the media luminaries that caught the rapper’s attention, it was 22-year-old Negele Hospedales, a freshly graduated Canada native and long-time fan.
I'm looking for an intern, someone with experience in putting together decks and writing proposals
— Lil Chano From 79th (@chancetherapper) March 27, 2017
Determined to stand out from the rest of the multitudinous applicants, Hospedales created a website titled “Chance Hire Hospey,” to highlight his qualifications and previous work experience. Soon after he launched the site, it went viral, and received both a tweet back and an email of interest from the rapper himself.
“I got off work as a bartender in this awesome little music bar on Bondi Beach where I was working at the time, and had a text message from Chance that literally read, ‘how are you’ — not the type of message you expect to get from your favorite rapper at 3 a.m.” Hospedales explained in an interview with Pigeon & Planes. Within a week of receiving that text, he flew directly to San Francisco to embark on Chance’s two-month Be Encouraged Tour.
As anyone could expect, the experience working for the Grammy-award winning hip-hop star was anything but ordinary. While some internships comprise of fetching lattes or filing paperwork, Hospedales responsibilities ranged from hands-on communication work to having drinks with Fonzworth Bentley, or participating in a game a basketball with Migos.
When asked what he took away from this internship opportunity, Hospedales replied, “Anything is possible by chasing your goals and doing what you love. Even further than that I guess, would be how much is made possible with this wonderful tool called the Internet — and it really is that, a tool.
“Something concreted in my soul after seeing just how hard this man and his passionate band, background vocalists, production team, management team, security and damn near everyone else kept working, even in times when it would be easy to relax,” he continued. “You know, there is a real reason why Chance the Rapper will be on top for a long time to come. As a 22-year-old, this internship taught me a lot of things that I didn’t know I needed to know.”
This article originally appeared on Billboard.
