Before signing to Interscope Records, Chief Keef worked with artists like Kanye West, Gucci Mane, Mike Will Made It, 50 Cent, Waka Flocka Flame, Future, Migos, Fredo Santana, and Lil Reese. He also helped bring Drill music into the mainstream with songs like Bang, Everyday, I Don't Like, and Love Sosa.
Prior to his numerous arrests, disputes with other musicians, and significant social media scandals, such as the unsettlingly enthusiastic mocking of Lil JoJo's murder, one of his competitors, by the age of fifteen, Chief Keef was a high school dropout who belonged to the Black Disciples and had been caught selling heroin by the police.
In the same year, he became a teen father and had subsequent arrest for pointing a pistol at Chicago police. He was also making moves to establish himself as one of the most popular hip-hop artists. He was a living legend by 2012.
Chief Keef, widely regarded as one of the most authentic rappers in the game, contributed to the development of a fresh sound for Chicago rappers and the spread of drill music around the country. Despite multiple disputes, scandals, and legal troubles, he was recognized by mainstream musicians and forced major record labels to engage in a bidding war, which led to a six million dollar record deal for the rap sensation of the time.
Keith Cozart, better known as Chief Keef, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 15, 1995. His mother, who was just 16 years old at the time, gave her son the name of his late uncle. His grandmother temporarily served as his legal guardian while he lived with her in the southern part of Washington Park because he was alienated from his biological father.
However, Keith spent the majority of his childhood living in the area of King Drive and 60th Street on Chicago's East Side. Nearly all of the people who would later feature in Keith's music videos were his childhood buddies, and he attended Dulles Elementary School.
He first attended the Banner School for high school before transferring to Dyett High School, although he wouldn't stay there for very long. Keith left school at the age of just 15. The next year, he had his daughter Kayden Kash Cozart, who was given the moniker Kay Kay.
Keef remembers initially hearing G-Unit and Beanie Sigel rap music, and young Keith began rapping around the age of eight. By the age of nine or ten, he was already transforming into a gifted artist.
He began recording when he was about 12 years old. He began working with one of the producers he would continue to work with as an adult, DJ Kenn, who was born in Japan and immigrated to the United States at the age of 20. During his first year in the US, after initially arriving in New York, he relocated to Chicago.
One day, Kenn was traveling through the neighborhood when Keith's uncle saw him and assisted him in finding housing. Following that, Kenn began working alongside a young Chief Keef and his older cousin and friend, Fredo Santana.
Initially, Chief Keef would employ sophisticated wordplay, analogies, and punchlines; however, he attributes DJ Kenn with inspiring him to streamline his lyrics and concentrate on just conveying what is happening at the moment.
Both Keef as an artist and Drill music as a subgenre would come to be defined by this emphasis on speaking candidly about the grim reality of life on the streets of Chicago.
"Nihilistic drill represents real reality where its squeaky-clean hip-hop rivals have failed," noted Lucy Stehlik of the Guardian.
Indeed, Chief Keef based his portrayal of street life on his own personal experiences. Before he ever released any songs, he was detained on drug-related charges on January 27, 2011, in particular for producing and distributing heroin.
He was deemed to be "delinquent" rather than guilty of the charges because he was a juvenile offender. After that, he was placed under house arrest, but he appeared to make the most of his time. "The Glory Road," Chief Keef's debut mixtape, was released in July 2011.
The Chief's mixtape started to gain a cult following in the area's underground hip-hop culture and at high schools.
But he wouldn't start attracting recognition outside of the city until his music videos were made public. Because of this, D Gainz, a.k.a. videographer Duan Gaines, would play a significant role in the Chief Keef tale.
D Gainz would collaborate with many Chicago rappers despite lacking any official training.With videos that were extremely famous online, DGainz assisted in bringing their music to a wider audience.
Facebook allowed Chief Keef and D Gainz to connect, and they first met in DJ Kenn's studio. In just 30 minutes, they filmed the Bang music video there. On August 5th, 2011, Dgainz posted the video to his YouTube page, where it has now received over 15.6 million views.
Bang, Chief Keef's second mixtape, was made available on October 11th. It naturally included the song of the same name. The mixtape was released by Glory Boys Entertainment, which would later become officially recognized as Chief Keef's imprint label under Interscope Records in 2013. All but two of the mixtape's tracks were produced by DJ Kenn.
Artists Lil Reese, Lil Durk, SD, and Fredo Santana were members of the GBE clique along with DJ Kenn. Reese and Fredo both contributed songs to the Bang Mixtape, which gave Chief Keef more influence in the community.
His subsequent music video, Aimed at You (which was naturally shot by DGainz), would once more see tremendous online success. Chief Keef made a surprise entrance at Adrianna's, a venue in Markham, Illinois, a south suburban city of Chicago, on November 24, 2011, the day before his first performance.
Four songs from the Bang Mixtape were performed by him. Just two days later, the authorities decided to cancel Keef's performance at the Harambee House due to his gang links.
Indeed, Chief Keef has now acknowledged on Twitter that he is a member of the Black Disciples. He tweeted, "2-4-14 Black Disciple Nation," on February 4, 2014. Whether it wasn't apparent enough, a fan later asked Keef if he was a Blood, to which Keef replied, "No, I'm a Black disciple Nation!"
Anyhow, that performance was abruptly rescheduled for Cafe Peninsula in Riverdale, Illinois.
However, Chief Keef would later have a reputation for upsetting fans by canceling events, and this cancelled gig was by no means his only encounter with law enforcement.
Chief Keef left his grandmother's house in December 2011 with his hands suspiciously concealed by a coat in front of his waistband. When a police officer approached the rapper to question him, Keef shed his coat, exposing a handgun, and fled.
Keef repeatedly pointed his gun at the officers during the ensuing foot chase, and they responded by firing rounds at him that missed.
The police eventually stopped Keef and took his loaded revolver after chasing him for half a block. He was imprisoned for this event at the Cook County Detention Center before being placed under house arrest once more, which he served at his grandmother's home.
The next time the general public would see Chief Keef was during a performance at the River Oaks Mall, which was documented by Dgainz. Back from the Dead, Chief Keef's upcoming mixtape, would be released on March 14. Each song was produced by Young Chop, including "I don't Like," Lil Reese and Chief Keef's debut hit to reach the charts.
This song peaked at number five on the US Rap Chart and number 73 on the Billboard Hot 100. It would also receive Platinum certification. A number of Back from the Dead tracks would also go on to have hit music videos made by Dgainz.
On April 6, 2012, "Everyday" was released, and over 30 million people watched it. I Don't Like's music video was also directed by D Gainz, although it debuted on Chief Keef's brand-new Vevo account on July 30, 2012. Additionally, it has received about 30 million views.
Kanye West was also drawn to the song, and he produced a remix of it that helped Chief Keef gain more notoriety. Pusha T, Jadakiss, and Big Sean, three well-known musicians, would also appear on the song. Mixtapes continued to be released on top of this.
On May 19, 2012, Chief Keef would release "For Greater Glory," Volume 1. Volume 2 and Volume 2.5 would follow on October 19 and December 21, respectively.
Chief Keef would start to get harsh attention from the media and even other rappers as his popularity soared. Rhymefest, a fellow rapper from Chicago, criticized Keef Chief in a blog post, calling the young Drill musician a "Spokesman for the Prison Industrial Complex."
Lupe Fiasco described Chief Keef as a hoodlum and a symbol of Chicago's alarmingly high murder rate in August, saying that the rapper scared him. Keef did not do anything to improve his reputation.
He made the error of posting a picture of himself getting head from a female fan to Instagram in September 2012, which resulted in the social media platform blocking his account. In the same month, Chicago Police revealed that they had begun an investigation into Keef in relation to the death of Josesph Coleman, also of Englewood, also known as Lil Jojo. Keef's Twitter satire of Lil Jojo's passing served as the catalyst for this.
Jojo's mother insisted that she thought Chief Keef paid to have her son killed, despite Chief Keef's allegation that the posts were the consequence of his Twitter account being hacked. One month later, Cook County authorities pursued Chief Keef for parole violation after he was seen discharging guns at a shooting range during an interview with Pitchfork.
Due to his failure to inform his parole officer of a change of address, he was also accused of another parole breach. Cook County judge Anthony Walker denied the prosecution's plea to imprison him for the parole violations, citing a lack of evidence.
In October 2012, Chief Keef released the track "Love Sosa," and the following day, Dgainz's channel hosted the music video. The single would chart on Billboard, reaching number 2 on Heatseekers Songs and 56 on the Hot 100. The video has since amassed 73.4 million views. Along with I Don't Like, it was platinum-certified and was included on Chief Keef's first studio album, "Finally Rich."
Several major record labels courted Chief keef before the album's release. He chose to sign with Interscope Records after they gave him a three-album deal worth $6,000,000 plus a 440 000 advance to launch his own company, Glory Boyz Entertainment.
The album was released on December 18th, 2012, and reached its highest point at number 2 on Billboard's US Rap Chart and number 29 on the Hot 200. Artists including 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa, Young Jeezy, Rick Ross, and Lil Reece, another member of the Glory Boyz, made cameo appearances on it.
Chief Keef would also develop into one of the most sought-after featured artists themselves throughout the course of 2012. On songs by Waka Flocka Flame, Soulja Boy, Mike Will Made It, French Montana, and Fabolous, he would appear. He would appear on songs by Future, Kanye West, B.o.B, Wale, Migos, Young Dolph, and Gucci Mane the following year.
Chief Keef was added to XXL's Freshman Class List as number eleven in 2013, and GucciMane revealed on Twitter that he had joined the 1017 Brick Squad. Chief Keef was a successful rapper who helped bring drill music into the mainstream despite his critics and legal issues.
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