Chicago, IL · drill · hip-hop · trap

Chief Keef

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Invented a whole regional sound at sixteen and never bothered to claim credit — menacing, melodically warped Chicago drill whose ad-libs are still being borrowed a decade on.

Chief Keef, born Keith Farrelle Cozart in Chicago in 1995, grew up in the Parkway Garden Homes in the Washington Park neighborhood on the South Side. His mother had him unwed, his father remained absent, and he was raised largely by his grandmother, Margaret Carter, a school bus driver. He began rapping at five, recording over his mother's karaoke tapes, and dropped out of high school as a freshman.

He released his first mixtape, UF Overload, in 2009, and drew South Side attention two years later with The Glory Road and Bang. An arrest for firing a gun from his car led to a stretch of house arrest, during which he posted the videos that anticipated drill; producer DJ Kenn, introduced through Chief Keef's uncle, worked on many of the earliest tracks.

Tracks like 'I Don't Like' and 'Love Sosa', many produced by Young Chop, set the template for drill: sparse, ominous beats, half-sung hooks and a flat, unbothered delivery that carried more menace than raised voices ever could. 'I Don't Like' became a Chicago hit before Kanye West remixed it with Pusha T, Jadakiss and Big Sean, triggering a bidding war among major labels; Chief Keef signed to Interscope and released Finally Rich in 2012.

Since then Chief Keef has worked largely outside the major-label system, putting out mixtapes and albums at a steady clip through his own Glo Gang operation and taking on more of his own production. Later albums, among them Bang 3 and its second part, 4Nem (2021) and Almighty So 2 (2024), have entered the Billboard 200 as independent releases, and guest spots on Lil Uzi Vert's 'Bean (Kobe)' and Drake's 'All the Parties' have reached the Hot 100's top 40.

Chief Keef is credited with popularizing drill among mainstream audiences and is regarded as one of the genre's originators. His phrasing, ad-libs and melodic instincts have been absorbed by a generation of rappers in Chicago, the UK and beyond.

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