8:42pm – that’s when Chance the Rapper bounded on stage at Zepp@BIGBOX on August 25.

We don’t get a lot of hip-hop shows in these parts—sadly, that’s the prerogative of dime-a-dozen EDM peddlers—but this wasn’t a case of great-by-default. Make no mistake: Chance’s first-ever showing here was consummately and utterly first-rate. Essentially, the show was an hour-plus-long reminder of  the fact that he doesn’t run alongside the contenders – he sits on his own throne, apart from the Atlanta traperati that has dominion over the needle of pop culture, as far as hip-hop is concerned. Few, after all, can compel us to believe that we’re on an ultralight beam.