How missed graduation, cool dance video turned NC Central grad into a viral sensation
Chance Kennedy posted a video of himself dancing on social media and his life changed.
While a remixed version of gospel singer Marvin Sapp’s “Never Would’ve Made It” played, Kennedy — a former South Mecklenburg High football star — gave a joyous freestyle dance while his mother, Chandra, filmed it with her cell phone in an empty parking lot.
Kennedy, 22, was graduating from N.C. Central, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, there wasn’t going to be a ceremony.
This was Kennedy’s way of celebrating, letting loose in his maroon cap and gown. The 55-second video took six takes and just over an hour to film.
And when he posted it to social media the morning of May 9, his life changed overnight.
“At first,” Kennedy said, “I was getting local buzz, nothing crazy. But next thing you know, I get a notification that BET posted it. And next thing you know, Essence posted it, and I’m like, ‘Oh wow, this is blowing up!’”
Celebrities, from comedian D.L. Hughley to Chance the Rapper to “Love and Basketball” actress Sanaa Lathan, shared the clip and commented on it. Suddenly, Kennedy’s dancing had landed him on one of the world’s most popular Instagram pages, The Shade Room (19.2 million followers) and, Michael Strahan was introducing the nation to Kennedy’s video during a Good Morning America segment.
“Man,” said Kennedy, a wide receiver for N.C. Central. “I couldn’t believe how fast this was happening. Every day for three weeks straight was something different. Every day.”
By his estimation, Kennedy ended up doing more than 30 interviews, with ABC News and Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight — and “tons and tons” of radio stations. The Ellen Show reached out about a possible appearance via Zoom, and after signing a contract with Def Jam records, Kennedy’s clip ended up in the middle of R&B singer Teyana Taylor’s latest video about graduating, a song called “Made It.”
“When they started airing it on TV, and it started getting played in Texas and New York and LA,” Kennedy said, “and I’m like ‘Dang, it’s going across the country.’ That was amazing. I mean Oprah Magazine posted it. That’s dope. That’s Oprah, you know what I’m saying!?’ People would message me saying they’ve seen the video in London, Germany, Sweden.”
Kennedy said as he started to do more interviews, he began to notice a trend.
“I started noticing that there was a bigger message to the video,” he said. “I didn’t see it at first but during these times, seeing an African American man graduating, which is not something you see often, and then to see his joy in this time, to smile and have so much excitement, even with all this going on, was something I guess people just latched onto.”
His father, Larry, said he’s happy to see his son get this moment. Larry Kennedy said he couldn’t help but think that Chance almost didn’t make it. His mom was in a car accident and had pregnancy complications that, among other issues, caused Chance’s umbilical cord to wrap dangerously around his neck in the womb. Doctors had to deliver Chance six weeks early.
And Larry remembers how down his son was emotionally when he found out that there would not be a graduation ceremony this year.
“You go to college four or five years,” Larry said, “and at this point, his biggest thing was to walk across that stage. My oldest son (Larry Jr.) graduated four years ago from Fayetteville State and Chance was able to watch that whole experience. He knew how proud him doing the same thing was going to make myself and his mom.”
Larry was planning to have a cookout for family and friends to celebrate his son. Instead his son became an internet sensation, being celebrated by millions — not that dad isn’t familiar with celebrity; he was an All-American football player at Florida who once set a record for most consecutive starts. A knee injury late in his senior season, which he re aggravated at the Senior Bowl, probably cost him an NFL career.
Larry Kennedy signed with the Dolphins as a free agent and ended up playing in NFL Europe and in the Arena League. Today, he’s a key account manager with equipment and apparel company Riddell and works with college and pro teams across the country.
Both his sons grew up around sports and played football, but Larry said he can’t quite remember seeing anything like Chance’s sudden burst of popularity.
“I can say N.C. Central did a great job getting him right and developing and preparing him for this moment,” said Larry, who also coaches defensive backs at high school state champion Charlotte Catholic. “He was ready. He was prepared. He was eloquent. I’ve always had this quote, ‘No dumb jocks,’ for people who have the gift athletically but everything else fails them. I think that’s what I’ve cherished most about my boys.”
Kennedy redshirted his first year on the N.C. Central football team and has one year of eligibility remaining, which he plans to use to work towards his master’s degree. He said no matter what happens, even if N.C. Central were to make it to the Celebration Bowl for the first time since 2016, it probably won’t top the best month of his life.
“These past few weeks have simply been amazing,” Kennedy said. “I was not expecting this to happen. But it’s always the ones you don’t expect to go viral that go viral.
“I’m just so glad this one did.”
This story was originally published June 5, 2020 at 3:09 PM.
