Not another aimless Chief Keef blog: The follow-up blog to my June essay on Chicago's hottest rapper

NOTE: I find it imperative to read my June blog on Chief Keef, which will be referenced a lot during this post, http://stevepulaski.blogspot.com/2013/06/chief-keef-chicagos-homegrown-bad-boy.html

When I published my blog on Chief Keef back in June, I had an unbelievable rush of energy getting my thoughts out about one of the most controversial rappers in recent history. I had so much to say about this man, but no one to express my feelings and opinions to. I began listening in December 2012 - out of pure curiosity - and can't recall the last time I put on my headphones and did not listen to at least one song by him. His music, for me, has been therapeutic, encouraging, and confidence-boosting, while at the same time being monotonous, redundant, guttural, and quite intoxicating, as I try to reserve all puns. His single from his debut album, titled "Love Sosa," has received well over one-hundred and fifty plays since I downloaded it back in December; I'd be lying if I said I didn't sing along at least one-hundred times.

And now, here I sit at my computer, well into the night, typing a followup blog to my original blog on a rapper I thought I had said more than enough about. But after the release of some of his other songs, some news stories that have broke about him, and his recently released mixtape, I feel more should be said. Who's to say after the release of his mixtape Almighty So, which is now due out in September, not October, I don't publish a third blog? Who's to say I don't write a novel on the man in coming years? Who's to say I don't cash in my mullet haircut for dreadlocks? Honestly, with the ups and downs I've had in my writing career, none of this would truly surprise me. I'm known for getting caught up in my work, but this is becoming unhealthy.

I knew I was going to publish a followup blog to Chicago's homegrown badboy when I heard a bonus track off of Keef's Finally Rich album titled "Savage." Forget what I said in my last blog, calling Keef's "Kay Kay" track a "tour de force" for him, because "Savage" articulates everything about the man that needs to be known in an unapologetic, blunt fashion so raw and cut-throat that it becomes a brooding staple for the violence and mayhem the city of Chicago currently faces. The track is in your face, from Nard & B's slick production, to Keef's blatant lyrics, opening with, "My young boys clap heat, my young boys don't care. Yeah, them O'Block [his gang, respectively] boys savage, boy, don't go over there. They shootin' shit on sight, guns banging' like a snare, and if you think that you is tough and you get popped, oh well." Those lines alone are some of the coldest lines I've heard in contemporary rap in years. They send shivers down the spine of people who have heard about gang violence in Chicago, or simply know of it. The fact that they're coming from a seventeen year old boy is absolutely stunning.

The following verse is no warmer, as Keef raps on. "I'm posted on O'Block, smoking dope with Boss Top. And he totin' the Tech Nine, a hundred shots, please don't get popped[...]Don't stunt on O'Block, or spend your life on a watch. T-Roy, he got a semi, he'll send yo ass to heaven. All you scary mothafuckas go to church and see yo reverends. This is ain't no diss song, this a message; my young boys savage. No lackin' or they stretchin'; now this shit done got hectic," Keef states, completely defying all expectations and pre-conceived notions about his music. Whether these are the ramblings of a cocky, violent adolescent or the true terror messages of a youth in a big city are left to be discovered, but if these lyrics denote the truth about the gang and terror in Chicago, then we have an epidemic more psychologically troubling than anyone ever thought. If I gave songs four-star ratings, I'd give "Savage" the full four stars; it's well-sung, terrifically crafted, expertly, carefully produced, and frighteningly authentic. It doesn't deserve to be a bonus track at Best Buys across America.

It's a shame to say that recent Keef releases have left a lot to be desired. I often browse Youtube's recently uploaded videos, hoping to see a new Keef song come in the mix. As stated in my June blog, some I listen to and download, some I just write off. Take "I Ain't Done Turnin' Up," released on his new mixtape Bang: Part 2. The song is a low-key, laidback tune, as Keef describes, yet again, his transition from residing in the ghetto of Chicago to the luxurious houses a few towns over. "Cause I'm countin', girl I'm money countin'. I ain't gotta count it, I got a money counter. I'm up at the top, I started from the bottom. I can't really trust niggas, so I gotta watch 'em. Cause these niggas plottin', cause I'm getting guap [money] now, back then they wanna fold me, but fold me cause I'm hard now. I see what Mike Jones was talkin' bout," Keef states in the latter half of the song. The song is good in some regards, but too low-key and conventional to be recommended. The music video is equally conventional, as Keef either holds countless hundreds in his hands, does peculiar hand-motions when the cash is absent, or rides a quad-bike around a dirt path. If I rated it, I'd give it a two; it has some, if little, replay value.

His followup song to that one is "Morgan Tracy," another woefully uninspired tune offering little insight to him other than the usual persona we know him for. "She shakin' ass, but that shit, it don't amaze me. I'm off the act [the popular "lean" concoction in rap culture], this shit got me feelin' lazy. I was born in the nineties, fuck the eighties. Cause I got lots of guap, thinkin' Morgan Tracy," so says a clearly hazy Keef, due in part to either marijuana, lean, or a combination of the two. The song is nice for a quick boost of energy, but, again, provides little in the realm of trying to penetrate and get to know more about the violent, listless culture of the Chicago gangs. A generous two stars.

I began to venture out and listen to other members of Glory Boyz Entertainment, Keef's record label under Interscope. I found his cousin Fredo Santana had a song he headlined called "Round 'Em Up," with Keef as a feature and gave it a whirl. I found another insanely catchy, lyrically tasteful track again shedding more light on the violence plaguing urban neighborhoods in the Chi. Keef opens the song with predictably cold lyrics, but strong ones at that. "I be high as fuck, ridin' dog, mounted up, you lie and stuff. I go down to the mall and I buy it all. My homeboys, I buy it all; exes, mounted up. Racks up in my pocket and you know these bitches rounded up. Fuck niggas frown and stuff, but we don't care, we round 'em up. Knock 'em down like dominoes, bullets shoot, they fly and stuff. Please don't challenge us; we'll shoot all your challengers. We the squad, hammered up, we too busy turnin' up," so the chorus goes. Although Keef follows up with a lackadaisical verse, his cousin Santana rebounds it beautifully, offering a lyrically potent, flowing verse stating, "Fuck with us, you die tonight, all we do is carry pipes. You ain't with the shit, but goddamn, you live a scary life. High as fuck, dump it up, ridin' around in Beamer trucks. Problem with us? We up them poles, then fucking shoot your momma up," again, capturing the cold nihilism of Chicago ganglife. Whether or not this is tough-guy talk or a true threat to listeners, lyrics like this are bold and vile, especially from people no older than twenty-five. Give it a three.

Moving on from reviewing the songs he has released, let's take a brief look at Chief Keef's highly-anticipated mixtape Bang: Part 2, which was released on August 15, 2013 at 10:17pm (I can give justification to the time - can you?). The album features sixteen songs, three of them being pointless skits and two of them already released (the aforementioned "I Ain't Done Turnin' Up" and "Morgan Tracy"), so let's revise that to eleven tracks. Out of those eleven, I would call three of them ones I'd listen to on a consistent basis; the rest is cheap filler. The track "Hoez N Oz" effectively matches Keef's dismal track "April Fools" as the worst song released this year, and "3" is about the laziest you can get lyrically, even by Keef standards.

The three tracks I call worthy of listens are "What I Wanna Do," a song that effectively, if redundantly, illustrates Keef's net worth and how it allows for him to do whatever he wants, "Gotta Glo Up One Day" ("Glo" referencing his Glory Boyz label and gang, obviously putting a spin on the phrase "gotta grow up one day"), which establishes how we all need to man up and become part of his squad sooner or later, and finally, the true banger of the album "Hard Way." "Hard Way" is Bang: Part 2's masterwork, but it's far too short for its own good. "Smokin' dope? Gotta find out the hard way. Don't make us make you find out the hard way. Bitch, we do it the smart way. Bitch, I'm O'Block and I do it the squad way; hey, this the hard way or the squad way. And, bitch, we love the hard way. Don't make us start spray in broad day. Leavin' eyes, brains in the hallways," Keef angrily raps in a muddled but addicting chorus I've guilty mumbled while stocking beer at my work. Overall, for anticipation clocking in at eight months for a mixtape barely over a half hour long, featuring none of the complete snippets that Keef has been releasing sporadically since January now (I've been dying for a full length version of "Fuck Yo Block" for months now), this is about as half-baked (pun not intended, once more) as you can get - even by free mixtape standards. One and a half stars.

I mention this because if Keef wants his fame to "rise, rise, rise," as he puts in "Squad I Trust" and he wants his money counter to keep countin' (as noted in "I Ain't Done Turnin' Up"), he'll need to release songs of better quality than this. I've gone back to Finally Rich on several occasions now, each time liking tracks I previously loathe. His style is addicting and pretty invigorating, and I'd hate to see that diminish. And if you spend $20,000 on toys for your daughter at Toys R Us (as noted in his track "2 Much" on Bang: Part 2), you're going to need to keep bringing in the money by pumping out the quality. I honestly hope his next mixtape Almighty So will to be less rushed and more driven by slick production (preferably by his devoted producer Young Chop) and less driven by senseless phrases and monotonous lyrics.

 

If anything, I'd say this blog, yet again, gave me a strong release, as I continued to elaborate my thoughts on a rapper, I believe, is seriously one of the most interesting figures in modern music today. Most of Keef's tracks aren't profound, and some of which are downright atrocious and mind-numbing, but when he hits strong commentary on things like gang violence, nihilistic attitudes in the ganglife, and true feelings of the youth in Chicago, he hits oddly commendable heights. Tunes like "Savage," "Round 'Em Up," "Finally Rich," and "I Don't Like" keep me coming back to listen to his music, whether I'm falling asleep on my rocking chair, mowing the lawn, riding in the car, or simply trying to get through another bus ride at school. Or, guiltily once more, regarding all the hits my reviews are getting at this point in time.