Chance the Rapper and his manager Pat Corcoran, who goes by Pat the Manager, were largely inseparable throughout the Chicago MC’s rise from neophyte to global superstar in the 2010s.
Pat served as Chance’s manager from 2012 to 2020, before he was abruptly fired when the relationship soured, and the parties went their separate ways.
Several months after being let go by Chance, Corcoran filed a civil lawsuit against three companies owned by the artist in November 2020, where he claimed he was owed over $3 million in royalties and unpaid commissions.
What makes things tricky from a legal standpoint is that Chance and Pat the Manager operated with handshake and spoken agreements, rather than handwritten contracts specifying the terms of the artist-manager relationship.
Chance the Rapper (born Chancelor Bennett) attempted to get Corcoran’s case dismissed — which largely went unsuccessfully — and then countersued Corcoran in February 2021, claiming a breach of contract and seeking $1 million in damages.
Chance has since replaced Corcoran with his father (Ken Bennett) and brother (Taylor Bennett) filling management roles on his team.
Following an extended hiatus after the release of his critically panned official debut LP The Big Day in 2019, Chance returned with his sophomore album, Star Line, last August, which debuted at No. 22 on the Billboard 200. He then hit the road for his first headlining tour of the 2020s.
With the trail of Corcoran’s lawsuit against Chance now underway in Illinois, here’s a timeline untangling the legal mess between Chance the Rapper and his former manager.
