The Human Digest

JAN 17

John Madden - Chief Keef (Youtube, 2011)
I’m not sure anyone fully understands the appeal of Chief Keef.  He emerged to minor internet fanfare (mostly FSD & SMS) when a WSHH video of a kid celebrating Keef’s release from prison surfaced.  When scrolling through DGaines or AON Productions youtube pages, Chief Keef doesn’t stand out as the most technically skilled or talented rapper, but he stands out nonetheless.  He’s ultimately rehashing the southern trap style with a local flare, but presents a rawness and devil may care attitude that has translated to a firm regional following.
Keef’s video for “Bang” has over 500,000 views with barely any “blog attention”, which is relatively unheard of in 2011-2012. He doesn’t look a day over 18 years old, and most of his videos are heavily laden with kids his age and younger toting a high volume of guns in a small space.  Producer DGaines noted that Chief Keef is especially popular with the high school kids, which I’m sure local parents aren’t too fond of.  There’s a video of Keef giving his first post-prison performance in Chicago with thousands of screaming fans going word for word with him.  It’s somewhat of a Waka Flocka effect, the charisma is of chief importance.  Chief Keef can undeniably ride a beat as seen in “John Madden”, even if it’s another play on The Southern stunted triplet Travis Porter “Make it Rain” style that has (thankfully) become so popular.
Sidenote:  I’m still unsure of whether David D is pulling another “Team Fred the Godson” and seeing if he can get people to blindly follow a rapper he doesn’t actually like.  I was weary of Keef upon first hearing him, and especially confused that his videos had more views than almost any of the other local talent in Chicago.  First exposure to him was the “In this Bitch (Remix)” which was initially entertaining, though the rapping and production was a bit of a letdown.  The chorus, however, was impossible to forget and the pulled me back to trolling Keef’s youtube page over and over.  Perhaps he has realized he can forever embed himself in the minds of fans by simply mastering (Re: using) repetition.
If there’s any interest in further exploring Keef and his in-house producer DJ Kenn’s music, you can download a compilation of Kenn’s work with various Chicago rappers here: DJ Kenn Productions


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