Before Chief Keef helped to usher Drill music to the mainstream, with songs like Bang, Everyday,
I Don't Like, and Love Sosa.
Before signing to Interscope Records, creating his own imprint label, Glory Boyz Entertainment,
and collaborating with the likes of Kanye West, Gucci Mane, Mike Will Made It, 50 Cent,
Waka Flocka Flame, Future, Migos, Fredo Santana and Lil Reese.
Before his multiple arrests, beefs with other artists, and serious social media scandals,
including the disturbingly gleeful mockery of the death of one of his rivals, Lil JoJo
By fifteen years old, Chief Keef was a Black Disciples-affiliated high school drop out,
busted by police for selling heroin.
One year later, he'd be arrested again for pointing a gun at Chicago cops and become
a teen dad, all while making moves to become one of the hottest names in hip hop.
By 2012, he was a living legend.
Widely considered one of the realest rappers in the game, Chief Keef helped to carve out
a new sound for Chicago rappers, and popularize Drill Music across the United States.
Despite numerous scandals, beefs, and run ins with the law, he gained recognition from
mainstream artists, and had major record labels fight a bidding war that resulted in a six
million dollar record for the then teenage rap sensation.
What's going on, guys?
My name's Michael McCrudden, documenting the life and career of Chief Keef, prior to fame,
her for you on Before They Were Famous.
I've covered other drill rappers in the past.
You might like the videos I've done on Lil Bibby and Lil Durk.
Be sure to check those out, and let me know, as always, who you want me to document next.
Chief Keef was born Keith Cozart on August 15, 1995, in Chicago, Illinois.
At the time, his mother was just 16 years old, and named her son after his deceased
uncle.
He was estranged from his biological father, and his grandmother was his legal guardian
for a time, and he lived with her in the sourthern end of Washington Park.
For the most part, though, Keith grew up around the East Side of Chicago, in the neighbourhood
by sixty fourth street and king drive.
Keith attended Dulles Elementary School, and just about everyone who would later appear
in his music videos were childhood friends.
For high school, he attended the Banner School, before switching to Dyett High School, but
he wouldn't be there long.
Keith dropped out when he was just 15 years old.
The next year, he would father his first child, his daughter, Kayden Kash Cozart, who would
also go by the nickname, Kay Kay.
The first rap music Keef recalls being exposed to was G-Unit and Beanie Sigel, and young
Keith started rapping when he was around eight years old.
When a reporter from Fader asked him when he started rapping, he responded,
“Since I was little...An average little kid in Chicago is probably eight.
When you hit nine, ten, you ain't little no more.”
By nine or ten years old, he was already developing into a talented artist.
He told Complex,
“When I was living with my mama, we used to have this karaoke machine...We was little
as fuck.
Little-ass kids, about '05, '04.
We used to freestyle.
I used to be so cold, even when I was a little shorty.
I used to freestyle raw as hell.
See now, my brain is fucked up from smoking so much loud.
But I was raw!
We had little blank tapes, put 'em in there, record, got the little mic, the beat playing,
weak-ass beats and shit.
Cold as hell!
Called ourselves Total Domination.”
By the time he was around 12 years old, he started recording.
One of the producers he would continue working with as an adult, started with him way back
then.
DJ Kenn was born in Japan and moved to the states when he was 20 years old.
First arriving in New York, he moved to Chicago during his first year in the US.
Keith's uncle Keith spotted Kenn when he was walking through the neighbourhood one day,
and helped him to find a place to stay.
After that, Kenn started to work with a young Chief Keef, and his friend and older cousin,
Fredo Santana.
While early on, Chief Keef would use clever word play, metaphors and punchlines, he credits
DJ Kenn with encouraging him to simplify his lyricism and focus on just describing what's
going on right now.
This focus on directly talking about the gritty reality of life on the streets of Chicago
would come to define both Keef as an artist, and Drill music, as a genre.
As Lucy Stehlik of the guardian wrote,
“Nihilistic drill reflects real life where its squeaky-clean hip-hop counterparts have
failed.”
Sure enough, Chief Keef's descriptions of street life came from real life experiences.
On January 27th, 2011, before he ever released any music, he was arrested on drug charges.
Specifically, for the manufacture and distribution heroin.
Because he was a juvenile offender, he was determined to be 'delinquent', rather than
guilty of the charges.
He was then put under house arrest, but he seemed to make good use of that time.
In July of 2011, Chief Keef released his debut mixtape The Glory Road.
The mixtape began to develop a grassroots following for the Chief in the local underground
hip hop scene, and in local high schools.
But it would not be until the release of his music videos that he would begin to garner
attention outside of the city.
For that reason, videographer Duan Gaines, better known as D Gainz, would become a major
part of the Chief Keef story.
Despite having no formal training, D Gainz would work with numerous Chicago rappers,
like King Louie, Buck 20 Brick Boys, Vic Mone, Lil Kenny and Lil Durk.
DGainz helped to bring their music to an online audience, with videos that gained massive
popularity.
Chief Keef and D Gainz found each other via Facebook, and met for the first time at DJ
Kenn's studio.
There, they shot the video for Bang, and did so in just 30 minutes.
The video was dropped on Dgainz's youtube channel on August 5th, 2011, and has since
racked up over 12.6 million views.
On October 11th, Chief Keef released his second mixtape, Bang, which, of course, included
the track of the same name.
Aside from two tracks, the entire mixtape was produced by DJ Kenn, and the project was
released by Glory Boys Entertainment, which would eventually become formalized as Keef's
imprint label under Interscope Records in 2013.
The GBE clique included DJ Kenn and artists Lil Reese, Lil Durk, SD and Fredo Santana.
Both Reese and Fredo featured on the Bang Mixtape, which helped to gain Chief Keef even
more local clout.
His next music video, Aimed at You, (which was, of course, shot by DGainz), would once
again gain massive traction online.
On November 24th, 2011, Chief Keef performed his first concert, making a surprise appearance
at Adrianna's, a venue located in a south suburb of Chicago, called Markham, Illinois.
He performed four songs from the Bang Mixtape.
Just two days later, he had a show at the Harambee House, which was shut down by the
police, who were concerned about Keef's gang affiliations.
Sure enough, Chief Keef has since confirmed his affiliations with the Black Disciples
via twitter.
In a post from February 4th, 2014, he tweeted,
“2-4-14 Black Disciple Nation!”
If that was not clear enough, a couple years later a fan asked him if he was a Blood, and
Keef responded,
“No im Black disciple Nation!”
Anyway, at the last minute, that show was moved to Cafe Peninsula in Riverdale, Illinois.
But, Chief Keef would eventually become notorious for disappointing fans with cancelled shows,
and this cancelled show was by no means Chief Keef's last interaction with police officers.
In December of 2011, Chief Keef left his grandmother's home, suspiciously covering his hands with
a coat, in front of his waistband.
When a policeman stopped to question the rapper, Keef dropped the coat, revealing a hand gun,
and ran away.
During the ensuing chase on foot, Keef pointed his gun at officers several time, and they,
in turn, fired shots at him, but missed.
After running for half a block, the cops finally stopped Keef and recovered his pistol, which
was loaded.
For this incident, he would find himself locked up at Cook County Detention Center, before
once again being put under house arrest, which he served at his grandmother's house.
The next time Chief Keef would be seen by the public was in an appearance at River Oaks
Mall, an event captured by Dgainz.
Chief Keef's next mixtape, Back from the Dead, would drop on March 14, 2012.
Each track was produced by Young Chop, including Chief Keef's first charting single, I don't
Like, featuring Lil Reese.
That song would hit number 73 on the Billboard Hot 100, and number 5 on Billboard's US Rap
Chart.
It would also be certified Platinum.
Several songs off of Back from the Dead would also become popular music videos, once again,
created by Dgainz.
Everyday dropped on April 6th, 2012, and would eventually reach over 30 million views.
The music video for I Don't Like would likewise be shot by D Gainz, but dropped on Chief Keef's
newly minted Vevo account on July 30th, 2012.
It has also amassed around 30 million views.
The song also caught the attention of Kanye West, who made a remix of the song, which
further propelled Chief Keef into the spotlight.
The track would also feature mainstream artists, Pusha T, Jadakiss and Big Sean.
On top of this, the mixtapes kept on coming.
Chief Keef would drop For Greater Glory Volume 1 on May 19th, 2012, with Volume 2 following
on October 19th, and Volume 2.5 following on December 21st.
But while his popularity was skyrocketing, Chief Keef would begin to attract negative
attention from the media, and even other rappers.
Fellow Chicago rapper, Rhymefest, authored a critical blog post about Keef Chief, calling
the young Drill artist a,
“Spokesman for the Prison Industrial Complex.”
In August, Lupe Fiasco said that Chief Keef scares him, and went on to call him a hoodlum,
and a representative of Chicago's skyrocketting murder rate.
As for Keef, he did little to turn around his image.
In September of 2012, he made the mistake of uploading an image of himself getting head
from a female fan to Instagram, which lead to his account being disabled by the social
media site.
The same month, Chicago Police announced that they were opening an investigation on Keef
in connection to the murder of fellow Englewood resident, Josesph Coleman, AKA Lil Jojo.
This was prompted by Keef mocking Lil Jojo's death via Twitter.
Chief Keef claimed the tweets were a result of his twitter being hacked, but this didn't
convince Jojo's mother, who said she believed Chief Keef paid to have her son killed.
One month later, Cook County prosecutors went after Chief Keef for parole violation, after
an interview with Pitchfork showed him firing guns at a shooting range.
He was also charged with another parole violation, having failed to notify his parole officer
about a change of address.
While prosecutors requested he be jailed for the parole violations, Cook County judge Anthony
Walker allowed him to remain free, citing insufficient evidence.
Chief Keef would drop the single Love Sosa in October of 2012, and release the music
video on Dgainz's channel the same day.
The video has since climbed to a view count of 73.4 million, and the single would chart
Billboard, hitting 56 on the Hot 100, 15 on the Rap Chart, and number 2 on Heatseekers
Songs.
It was also certified platinum, and along with I Don't Like, would appear on Chief Keef's
debut studio album, Finally Rich.
Prior to the release of his album, Chief keef was courted by numerous major record labels.
He would opt sign with Interscope records, who offered him a three album deal worth six
million dollars, with an additional 440 thousand dollar advance to establish his imprint label,
Glory Boyz Entertainment.
The album would drop on December 18th, 2012, and peak at number 29 on the Hot 200 and number
2 on Billboard's US Rap Chart.
It featured guest appearances by artists like 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa, Young Jeezy, Rick Ross,
and his fellow Glory Boyz member, Lil Reece.
Throughout 2012, Chief Keef would also become one of the most in-demand featured artists
himself.
He would make appearances on tracks by Waka Flocka Flame, Soulja Boy, Mike Will Made It,
French Montana, and Fabolous.
The next year, he would feature on tracks by Future, Kanye West, B.o.B, Wale, Migos,
Young Dolph and Gucci Mane.
Also in 2013, Chief Keef was made the 11th member of XXL's Freshman Class List, and Gucci
Mane announced via twitter that he was the newest member of 1017 Brick Squad.
Despite his detractors and trouble with the law, Chief Keef had made it as a popular rapper,
and helped to usher drill music into the mainstream.
As for the rest of the story, well, you know it, because this is Before They Were Famous.
There's obviously much more to cover with Chief Keef's career, and if you guys want
to see that, we could get it done with an After They Were Famous video.
Let me know if you want to see that, or who else you'd like me to cover on Before They
Were Famous.
You can hit me up in the comments, or on Twitter or Instagram.