Keef signed a multi-million dollar deal with Interscope and debuted with 2012’s Finally Rich, a drill-defining declaration of nihilistic not-niceness, followed by a celebrity-studded (Pusha T, Big Sean, Jadakiss) Kanye West remix of his “I Don’t Like.” But being an innovator became another kind of confinement. When a video of a local fan celebrating Keef’s freedom blew up, people around the world started seeking his mixtapes, and the Chicago drill genre was born-gritty, revenge-seeking rap that dropped listeners into the city’s South Side wars. Chief Keef (born Keith Farrelle Cozart in 1995) had been charged with waving a gun at a cop and was posting music from lockdown: simple yet booming trap tunes full of matter-of-fact violence spit by a menacing voice with a gift for catchy repetition. The day in 2012 that a 16-year-old Chicago kid was freed from house arrest was the day hip-hop shifted on its axis.
