All drill fans know Chief Keef.
But only the realest fans know that his cousin was also a Chicago legend
and at one time, he wanted to kill the Migos.
Let’s tap into the career and come up of Fredo Santana.
Fredo was born on the 4th of July in 1990.
He grew up with two brothers and was raised by his grandmother,
great grandmother, mother, and aunt
in Parkway Gardens aka O’Block.
His dad was in and out of his life
and Fredo jumped off the porch at an early age.
He once shared a pic on Instagram that showed his pops with a pistol in one hand,
and his infant son in the other.
So, Fredo been around crime and violence since birth.
At 12 years old he started selling drugs
and joined the Black Disciples not long after.
At that time, there was no O’Block yet
and Fredo was a from a set called Front Street.
Fredo quickly found himself getting in trouble with the law
and got locked up for the first time at just 12 years old.
He got locked up again at 14 for hitting a teacher and got sent to juvie.
He later got out on probation
but decided he was done with school and he wanted to be a rapper.
Early on,
Fredo was inspired by rappers from New Orleans like Master P,
and Lil Wayne.
But when he got older he listened to other rappers like 50 Cent and Gucci Mane.
He got his first tattoo at 17,
which was a face tat, so he was fully committed
to either the streets or a rap career.
Chief Keef was 5 years younger than Fredo,
but they were blood cousins.
Growing up they formed a close bond and Fredo taught his cousin about the street life,
while Keef helped him perfect his rap skills.
Fredo saw his cousin’s talent early on and decided to start managing him.
Even though Keef is considered the king of drill now,
the cosign from Fredo really allowed him to take over Chicago.
Fredo was well respected in the streets
and half of the reason Keef had the confidence to take the risks he did with his career.
He was backed up by one of the most feared savages in Chiraq.
In 2010, when Keef first started building a buzz in the city,
Fredo got locked up again.
When he got out after like two years, he saw that Keef
and his day 1 homie Lil Reese were starting to blow up.
So he focused more on the music to try to make it out of the streets for good.
He dropped his first official track Hitta, which did decent numbers
cuz of his association with Keef and GBE.
In March 2012,
Chief Keef dropped his first big hit “I Don’t Like”
which featured the bar from Lil Reese
“Fredo in the cut that’s a scary sight”
introducing the world to the legend of Fredo Santana.
Even though GBE was well known in Chicago at the time,
"I Don’t Like" blew the top off for the drill movement
and made them all famous on a national level.
Fredo dropped his first mixtape “It’s a Scary Site” in 2012,
quoting the bar from Reese that made him famous.
Chief Keef may have been the star, but Fredo started building his own cult audience
who liked his raspy flow and menacing look.
He continued to drop tapes over the next few years,
including "Fredo Kruger",
"Street Sh*t"
and "Ain’t No Money Like Trap Money".
On top of starting his own rap career, he also created Savage Squad Records
and still helped manage his cousin and some of his homies
as they started to blow up in the industry.
When Kanye remixed "I Don’t Like" in 2013,
it gave them an even bigger platform to reach more fans
and gain connections in the industry.
That same year, Fredo was in the music video
for Drake’s hit song “Hold On We’re Going Home”,
and he plays the dude who kidnaps Drake’s girl.
He would also drop his debut studio album "Trappin Ain’t Dead",
which featured guest appearances from some of his boys from Chicago
like Keef,
G Herbo and Gino Marley,
and also major names in the industry like Peewee Longway and Kendrick Lamar.
So Fredo and GBE were linking up with some of the biggest artists in the game
and were respected by the street rappers as well as the pop stars.
But everyone wasn’t with the GBE movement
and in 2013, they got into a public beef with the Migos,
and Fredo threatened to kill them.
The Migos first broke into the industry in 2013 with the song Versace,
not too long after Keef blew up.
Even though Keef and Fredo were from Chicago and the Migos were from Atlanta
they was kinda in the same lane with the music.
So there was already tension
over who was going to be the number 1 group of this new wave.
The beef started after Keef thought the Migos had dissed him in a song.
In December 2013, Keef tweeted,
"Heard Migos Sneak dissin No talkin”.
Instead of deny it and try to clear anything up,
Offset responded to Keef tweeting
“Will b in Chiraq next week pull up”.
Takeoff also jumped in tweeting
“Sneak Diss Who?? PULL UP!! #DNTTWEET PULL UP!!”
Keef responded by mocking the Migos and tweeted
"Lol “Pull Up” #CallMeSosaSanta".
Not long after, the Migos dropped the song Jealousy (Chief Keef Diss),
where they took shots directly at Keef.
They also did a show in California, where Keef lived,
and again told him to pull up while they were there.
But Keef was in rehab
and wasn’t bout to leave to go run a fade with the Migos.
This led to Offset tweeting “All dese rappers know dey p**** anyway”.
Keef then dropped the tracks "Mando" and "Pull Up",
which were both Migos disses, referencing their hit song "Bando"
and the line they kept tweeting on Twitter.
In March 2014,
the Migos were in a crazy shootout while driving down the highway in Miami
and many assumed it was tied to the beef with Chief Keef.
Then, in May 2014
Migos announced they were shooting a music video with none other than Lil Durk
in Keef’s own hood O’Block.
At the time, Durk and Keef were also beefing,
after Keef refused to bail Durk out of jail in 2013.
Go peep our video on Glo Gang vs OTF: War in O’Block for more info on this beef.
So Durk would tweet
"Migos can come to O’Block and shoot our video".
Migos replied by tweeting “who said we can’t?”.
Durk responds with “a nobody”.
Durk’s cosign of the Migos was also approved by Bosstop,
another O’Block member who was also beefing with Keef
for not bailing him out of jail.
Bosstop supposedly ran through Keef’s crib and stole a few items,
specifically his Johnny Dang chain, while Keef was in court.
Bosstop doubled down on the disrespect
by taking a pic with the Migos, while rocking the stolen chain.
So, involving Keef’s childhood friends even if they were also beefing at the time,
showed it was going further than just music.
In November 2014,
there was an altercation between the Migos and a rapper from GBE named Capo
at a restaurant in Chicago.
The Migos posted a video to their IG clowning Capo in the restaurant with the caption
“caught @elcappgguod slippin last night in his city".
It’s hard to tell what actually went down but Capo responded by tweeting
“Migos soft as hell Y’all just had 20 n**** and I was by myself f*** n**** link!”
At this point, Fredo wasn’t just about to sit on the sidelines.
When it was just sneak disses and music he gave them a pass.
But once they started playin with one of his boys, he had to step in and shut it down.
He tweeted to the Migos
“I’m in LA
stop playin with Capo on BD before I get y’all whole camp killed
facts my word is LAW so don’t test”
Then he tweeted
“I will do the time for it”
with an emoji with sunglasses.
He continued tweeting
“On BD this shit go for any rap n****
u will die playin with me an I will go to jail wit out a care
I’m the right mf to play wit on BD”
and
“whoever ridin with them is an enemy and I hope y’all know what I do to enemies”
followed by the devil emoji.
So Fredo wasn’t just talkin to the Migos
he was also getting at dudes from O’Block like Durk and Bosstop who cosigned the disrespect.
Even though their beef was with Keef, Fredo had so much respect in the city
that once he drew that line, nobody would cross it.
About a week later,
the Migos got into a huge fight with GBE at a show in DC,
where Quavo allegedly had his chain snatched.
Keef then posted to his Instagram showing off the stolen chain,
proving GBE took it.
But instead of revenge,
the Migos decided to squash the beef before it got too wild.
In December 2014,
Keef posted a pic with the Migos after meeting up in LA,
showing the beef was over and that it was all just a big misunderstanding.
Rumors are that industry OG’s like Gucci Man and Coach and Pee from QC
stepped in and made sure that it wouldn’t result in real violence.
Chicago is a whole different world and once Fredo said
he was willing to kill and go to jail, they knew it had to end before someone got hurt.
That story shows just how influential Fredo was,
not just in Chicago but the overall rap game.
When it was all sneak disses and Twitter talk, he let it slide.
But once Fredo put his foot down,
the Migos and their camp started to realize if they don’t squash this beef,
someone’s gonna get killed.
But all the respect that Fredo had in the streets, couldn’t save him from his own demons.
He was a heavy drug user and was addicted to Xanax and lean.
He said his drug use was the result of trauma from witnessing so much violence at a young age
and losing so many friends to the streets.
He said he suffered from PTSD and used the drugs to cope.
Fredo was hospitalized in March 2017
after suffering from a seizure.
He was diagnosed with epilepsy and continued to suffer from seizures.
His friend Gino Marley would find him on the floor bleeding from his mouth later that year
and rush him to the hospital.
There, he was diagnosed with liver and kidney failure that was tied to his drug use.
Fredo said he was tired of abusing drugs and wanted to go to rehab.
But unfortunately, he ain’t get the help he needed in time.
On January 19th, 2018,
his girlfriend found him on the floor at their crib in LA.
By time the ambulance got there, he was already dead.
He suffered a fatal seizure, and was suffering from cardiovascular disease
in addition to his liver and kidney problems.
He was pronounced dead at just 27-year-old.
Aside from all the work he put in on the streets,
it wasn’t an opp or the police that took him out, it was his own addictions.
But Fredo Santana left a legacy that will never be forgotten
and he will live on through his music and those he inspired.