Chief Keef, where do I even start? The young sensation who has Chicago in the spotlight, but for all the wrong reasons. I first heard of Keef on a Chicago hip hop blog that I frequent called Fake Shore Drive. To be honest, I was hyped on him immediately. I loved his producer's beats, and I thought his songs were fun to play at parties. The sense of youthful camaraderie amongst friends is clear in his hit single "I Don't Like". His first mixtape "Back From the Dead" was released at the age of 16 just after he had finished a sentence for allegedly firing a gun at a police officer.This leads me to my next point being that Chief Keef is from the most dangerous city in the U.S., Chicago. If you don't believe me, look for yourself , http://homicides.redeyechicago.com/ . There is basically a genocide occurring in the South side of Chicago and it doesn't seem like it is getting any attention. However, Keef uses this as a backdrop for his music. His lyrics speak of firefights, robbing on sight, shooting at strangers, and all sorts of crime. One of his mantras of gang affiliation, 'OTF', stands for "Only The Family", so if you aren't a part of his family, you are a likely target for him. The theme of all of him and his friend's(Glory Boy Ent.) music is mainly that of isolation and not trusting anyone outside of the "family". It is understandable that he has an attitude like this because of the environment he was raised in, but perpetuating the violence further is clearly not working. On his way up, everything was going so well for him. His Twitter account showed pictures of money stacks too big to count, fancy cars, clothes for his newborn daughter, and him living the life with his friends. Kanye even remixed his hit track to catapult him into the spotlight. Until an incident recently, no one had really taken any opposition to him. After the killing of Lil JoJo, a fellow Chicago rapper who was an enemy of Keef and his Glory Boy Entertainment posse, Keef responded by laughing on Twitter....absolutely terrible. Further investigations are being held as Keef and his friends are going to be possibly held responsible, http://www.suntimes.com/14964520-761/lil-jojo-murdered-in-chicago-police-now-looking-at-chief-keefs-tweets-source-says.html . Lupe Fiasco took a stance against him and then Keef said he'd kill him, too. Clearly Keef doesn't have a very good PR agent to filter his responses, so the real him surfaces, and it isn't pretty. He actually is living the life he speaks of in his songs, so the authenticity of his lyrics can be really relatable for some people, but at the same time, he is cashing in at the expense of the whole community. It is his art, and it is great to see a young kid come from nothing to something, but just not like this..
Also, notice, there are no women in the video. I haven't seen any of his videos that have women in them although he speaks of them in his songs frequently. Like we discussed in class, is his environment a place he deems unsuitable for girls?
It is also interesting to note that Chief Keef has a form of autism called Asperger's Syndrome. People credit his lyrical delivery as one that is cold and removed, but it may stem from his condition rather than what he has weathered on the streets..
