CHIEF KEEF - Before They Were Famous - UPDATED - The Dedication

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..

Labels: UPDATE

Thanks for reading CHIEF KEEF - Before They Were Famous - UPDATED - The Dedication. Please share...!