No More Old Man: A Postcolonial Lens on Chance the Rapper and the Death ofCommunity

Growing up, I was a kid raised in diverse neighborhoods with my mom. I know nothing about the old man down the street, the man in the Kangol hats, the one that would be the neighborhood uncle that took care of all the children on the block. That absence has a history behind it. The idea that we are not allowed to be a community, that a lot of minority populations are forced to be their own saviors, starts in history when we look at the separation of neighborhoods. The redlining of districts creates the separation of the old man on the porch and the way that we take care of our communities. According to NCRC, over the past 50 years, approximately 15% of urban neighborhoods in the U.S. have shown signs of gentrification.

The song "No More Old Man" talks about this and how it is a massive problem for men and women everywhere. Today I want to dissect what that looks like through a postcolonial lens, the idea of no more old man.

The idea of this song is rooted in the reality that Black men have a tendency of dying younger. The idea that Black men face serious health disparities is acknowledged right there in the first verse. As of early 2026, Black men in the U.S. face a disproportionately high mortality rate, with a life expectancy of approximately 69–70 years, trailing behind white men by roughly 6–7 years. Leading causes of death include cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and stroke, with mortality rates running approximately 40% higher than white men (minorityhealth.hhs.gov). Chance has said in interviews that the idea came from his cousin writing about it a long time ago, but it is coming to light now. The idea of the local barbershop dying off because there is no old man left to hold it down.

When we look at the first verse, Chance goes into the song and tells us the story of the Chi-Town old man:

"They say Chi don't dance no more / And the little kids don't got a chance no more / They ain't even tryna free the old man no more / One day there won't be no old man no more"

The old man and the kids don't have a chance to grow and be better than what they've been told. We don't have a chance to grow and listen to the community's heartbeat,  the voice that tells us right from wrong. The idea that the old man is practically gone is the idea that no one listens anymore, that he gets replaced by a Chipotle or some new spot that sells itself to the nature of the human race. Chance tells us that we need the economy and the people around us to help raise the future.

"Mr. Darden used to take the bus over from Halsted / Mr. Harper used to be so exhausted / The barbershop bustling, bootleg Lacoste fits / Forget the DVDs, they tryna get that golf drip / Freckles, bifocals and Kangol hats"

Chance brings us into a past that we can all relate to, the community that once was, and takes us there to show that there is a story behind every word.

Toni Morrison talks about the habit of ignoring race. The idea that people understand race as something important, the way Chance does, matters deeply. Morrison recognizes that Black culture is silenced and not allowed to celebrate itself. She writes: "The habit of ignoring race is understood to be a graceful, even generous, liberal gesture. To note is to recognize an already discredited difference. To enforce its invisibility through silence is to allow the black body a shadowless participation in the dominant cultural body."

Toni shows us that there are disparities in writing that also show up in our day-to-day lives. Being Black doesn't command the life it deserves. In postcolonialism, it shows that only one culture gets to be seen and celebrated. Toni shows the moves Black culture makes to be better, but those moves are blocked because of the lack of voice they are given.

Morrison's broader argument is that literary Blackness defines and influences literary whiteness. How does a marginalized culture define and affect the dominant culture through literature? Her work in Playing in the Dark specifically outlines literary Blackness and literary whiteness in our national literature, which, for Morrison and for me, is American literature. And that is exactly what Chance is doing in "No More Old Man." He is writing the old man back into existence, putting his voice on record so that the culture doesn't disappear without a witness.