By Jabari Evans/The Conversation
Before he was arrested in December 2011, Chief Keef was a 16-year-old budding rap star. He’d released a song, “Bang,” which had more than 400,000 views on YouTube, along with a mixtape that he’d recorded in a friend’s bedroom. He also had a dedicated Twitter following among Chicago high school students.
The track displayed a rawness unlike anything else that was released at the time, and you couldn’t stroll down the streets of Chicago’s South Side without hearing “Bang’s” lyrics pulsing from the stereos of cars rolling by:
Choppers gettin’ let off
Now, they don’t want no war
30 clips and them .45’s, gotta go back to the sto’
And that Kush gettin’ smoked, gotta go back to the sto’
Cock back ’cause there’s trouble, my mans gon’ blow
Yet he was almost completely unknown outside of Chicago. His Facebook profile had less than 2,000 followers, he claimed his occupation was “smokin’ dope” and he still lived with his grandmother.
Posted on December 11, 2021