I knew that if a 16-year-old kid had the city buzzing, it would only be a matter of time before he was famous. As I was touring the country, I noticed that everyone from back home in Chicago was asking me if I’d heard of this kid Keef who was from Washington Park. The coverage was often less than flattering.Īt the time, I was entrenched in my own hip-hop music career, rapping under the moniker Naledge in the duo Kidz in the Hall. Eventually, the national press caught on. Its vanguards – artists like Chief Keef, King Louie, G Herbo and Lil Durk – emerged as local heroes by staying tethered to the blocks and neighborhoods they rapped about on SoundCloud and YouTube. The songs became known as drill music, a genre characterized by its dark synths, booming 808 drums, seemingly off-beat, mumbled verses and war-cry choral chants. Nevertheless, the verses written and hastily disseminated on social media by Chief Keef and his peers were fast becoming a unique sort of news ticker for low-income communities of color in Chicago, detailing the turf wars, rivalries and hassles of everyday life as a Black kid growing up in the city. His Facebook profile had less than 2,000 followers, he claimed his occupation was “smokin’ dope” and he still lived with his grandmother. Yet he was almost completely unknown outside of Chicago. 45's, gotta go back to the sto'Īnd that Kush gettin' smoked, gotta go back to the sto'Ĭock back 'cause there's trouble, my mans gon' blow The track displayed a rawness unlike anything else that was released at the time, and you couldn’t stroll down the streets of Chicago’s South Side without hearing Bang’s lyrics pulsing from the stereos of cars rolling by: Choppers gettin' let offģ0 clips and them. He also had a dedicated Twitter following among Chicago high school students. He’d released a song, “ Bang,” which had more than 400,000 views on YouTube, along with a mixtape that he’d recorded in a friend’s bedroom.

Before he was arrested in December 2011, Chief Keef was a 16-year-old budding rap star.

Chief keef no reason hulkshare