Late that same year, as the Chicago Police announced the MC was being investigated in connection to a shooting death, a video of Keef at a gun range triggered a parole violation investigation that ended in 2013 with a two-month sentence in a juvenile detention facility. 50 Cent, Young Jeezy, and Rick Ross made guest appearances, while production came from the likes of Young Chop and Mike Will Made-It. The single landed on Finally Rich, Keef's debut album released late in 2012 by Interscope. It caught the attention of Kanye West, who completed a remix of the track with Big Sean, Pusha T, and Jadakiss all added to the mix.

In early 2012, Keef was finishing his sentence of house arrest at his grandmother's home as his track 'I Don't Like' was topping a million views on video-sharing sites. The mixtapes The Glory Road and Bang were both released that year by Keef's label, Glory Boyz, but at the end of 2011, the rapper was arrested for unlawful use of a weapon, having pointed a gun at a police officer. Over the next several years, he focused on a recurring series called The GloFiles, which released its fourth volume in 2020, after which he issued the album 4NEM (2021) and a series of collaborative singles.īorn Keith Cozart in Chicago, Keef first hit with 2011's 'Bang,' a slow-rolling, simple cut that was an instant hit with the youth of his hometown's South Side. Following a pair of 2015 albums, a prolific Keef issued a string of mixtapes - five per year in 20 - including Two Zero One Seven, Thot Breaker, and Mansion Musick.

His official debut, 2012's Finally Rich, was a hit, peaking in the Top 30 of the Billboard 200. Kicking his career off at the age of 16 with the street single 'I Don't Like,' he was a hit on Chicago's high school circuit before mixtapes and viral videos led to a contract with Interscope. An influential figure in the 2010s drill scene, rapper Chief Keef pulls inspiration from the Chicago streets, delivering hardcore rhymes that often focus on inner-city tales of violence and drugs.

Top chief keef albums