With that in mind, I tried to listen to “Finally Rich” without all of the baggage of Keef’s backstory. Led Zepplin were occultists who abused groupies, Chuck Berry spied on women going to the bathroom, James Brown beat his wife, and even nice-guy Paul McCartney has his share of haters.
Chief keef 3hunna album cover full#
Nas described having a shootout in a playground full of kids in “NY State of Mind” and that song is considered an all-time classic.
Biggie was a woman-beating drug dealer, but “Ready to Die” is still one of the best rap albums ever made. “Lifestyles ov the Poor and Dangerous” is still a great album. Big L’s persona was a murderous sociopath, and Lamont Coleman was gunned down in the vein of the lifestyle he described on wax. If being a deplorable person disqualified people from being successful artists, some of the best music of the past fifty years would be off limits. There have been multiple articles in publications that don’t normally cover rap music on the implications of Chief Keef, what his art says about the state of the world, and the tricky racial politics of the few white critics, especially Pitchfork, who celebrate his music.Īmid all the press, PR, and controversy, its easy to forget that Chief Keef is an artist and an entertainer. Fellow Chicagoan Rhymefest called Keef a bomb who was created to destroy, and Lupe Fiasco has also condenmend Keef’s music. He also got a co-sign from Kanye West of all people, who remixed one of his songs and clearly influenced Keef’s rapping (more on that later). A guy who was implicated in the murder of a fellow rapper, who ran into parole issues after Pitchfork stupidly took him to a firing range for a video segment, thus violating his parole, and who has made a name for himself precisely because of his alleged “realness.” Like 50 Cent, who appears on the album, Keef comes custom wrapped in the authenticity of a criminal record. Here’s a guy glorifying gun violence who comes from a community wracked by gun violence, and who released his album days after the most horrific of 18 mass shootings in 2012. It’s hard to listen to Keef’s music without thinking about everything except the music. His debut album, “Finally Rich,” was released last month. He grew up in Chicago’s South Side, one of the epicenters of that city’s recent wave of shootings, and is the most famous drill music artist. Seventeen-year-old record label head, internet sensation, rapper, and father Keith “Chief Keef” Cozart is a product, chronicler, and possibly participant of the violence in Chicago. Drill is slang for revenge, and revenge factors heavily into many of Chicago’s homicides. The local street rap that eminates from Chicago’s most violent districts is called drill music. So without further ado, here are Chief Keef's 25 favorite songs, or his essential tracks-whichever you prefer.There were almost 500 homicides in Chicago in 2012, mostly shootings, mostly gang-related, and mostly involving young African-American men. As he points out, they're all straightforward to the point where the meaning is communicated in each song title. Speaking to us over the phone just before a live show, Keef was pressed for time and not particularly interested in discussing the reasons for his picks or analyzing his songs. When asked to choose his 25 favorite songs, Sosa went heavy on one artist in particular-himself That's right, Keef primarily listens to his own music these days, although one of his core inspirations does manage to claim a spot at the bottom of the list. And the answers definitely revealed volumes, but maybe not how you expected.
So we decided to ask him about his favorite songs instead. Having built his buzz through YouTube, he's more focused on individual tracks. At 17 years of age, Chief Ke ef is not really part of the album generation. Sometimes the responses speak volumes about their inspriation and evolution as a musician and a person. When we do these Complex digital covers, we usually ask artists about their favorite albums. This feature is a part of Complex's "Finally Rich" Week. Turns out most of them are by Chief Keef.