Keith Farrell Cozart, better known as Chief Keef, is an American songwriter, rapper, and composer from Chicago, Illinois. This multi-talented rapper has risen to prominence in a short period of time. He was from Parkway Garden Homes, also known as O-Block, in the Washington Park neighbourhood. It is on the city’s south side, which is mostly known for the Black Disciples street gang, of which Chief Keef is a member. He had been estranged from his father, Alphonso Cozart, since childhood and had lived with his grandmother since then.
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How did his musical journey start?
His mother had a karaoke machine in which he started recording his songs when he was 5 years old, which showed his passion for music. Therefore, he started working on his talent right from an early stage.
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Chief Keef net worth:
In 2021 Chief Keef is reported to have a net worth of 1 million dollars. His love for a lavish lifestyle is seen with his assets like his private jet travels and approximately $35 million mansions on star Island. Further, his collection of cars is wonderful, which includes Lamborghini Urus, Jeep Grand Cherokee TrackHawk, Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, and Chevrolet Camero ZL1. These are his favorite things that he started collecting.
His Music:
He represents the Gangster rap culture in Chicago and symbolizes Chicago’s drill music scene. The rap culture began to boom with the incest of Chief Keef’s music. With his unique music and rap, he gathered a lot of fans from his local community back in 2011. He was known for his famous mixtapes, The glory road, and Bang. This earned him a huge fame and name. In the same year, he was arrested for using a gun and firing from his car in his neighborhood, and he was under home confinement for 2 months. Due to this incident, he had to lose 2 months. Although he was under home arrest, he has been active on social media, clearly seen by his regular video updates on YouTube. It mainly focused on Chicago’s hip hop subgenre drill. This shows that passion doesn’t end even if we face any disturbance in life.
The Big Break:
When the Classic hip-hop song ‘I don’t like,’ chief keef got an unbelievable response, it became one of the most popular pieces of his music. This was one more breakthrough in hip-hop music. It was produced by young chop and promoted at all local parties because it was a proper fitment for the location. Due to the good promotion and is ideal for the area, it became a super hit. This song was ultimately remixed by Kanye West and other rappers Big Sean and Pusha T, Jadakiss. The remix was a great hit. This remix by big names brought Keef massive fame and recognition for his rap.
The year 2012:
Due to his passion and talent, 2012 summer offered him amazing deals and contracts from big labels in the market who wished to sign him, including Young Jeezy’s CTE World. His passion got him to be a renowned artist within less time. Nonetheless, 2012 was not a great year in music production. This reminds us that sometimes luck doesn’t fare well. Yet again, he got a great offer. Interscope Records signed him in the same year. Another deal was also promised to him, which would come up with his label Glory Boyz Entertainment (GBE). The money accounted for the agreement was $6,000,000, which was divided into three additional albums. To support the establishment of GBE, a whopping $440,000 was offered.
The Interscope deal:
The deal was a little tricky because it gave Interscope rights to revoke the contract if the debut album of Keef, which was Finally Rich released on 18th of December 2012, would fail to sell approximately 250000 copies by the next December. This deal was a real hot deal for the rapper. The album included guest rappers- Young Jeezy, 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa.
The year 2013:
It was a great year for Keef as he signed a deal with Brick Squad Records. Kanye West’s 5th track, ‘Hold my liquor’ from the album Yeezus, featured Chief Keef in the same year. This song was released on the 18th of June 2013. After he joined this album and made contributions to the track, he was praised by Lou Reed. His passion is acknowledged worldwide. He appreciated Chief Keef by recognizing it as an ‘incredibly poignant hook.’ The celebrations of his 18th birthday were grand because he released the mixtape Bang, which was extremely anticipated, but it did not get the response as expected. It was mostly negative. This album indeed didn’t fare so well.
Further in his musical career, he released another mixtape named Almighty Sosa; however, even this song got a negative critical reaction. This ran into a short disaster. Later in the year, in October, he completed his term in jail and started to complete the assignment of his second Studio album and a biopic.
The year 2014:
Like any other music composer, even Chief Keef started experimenting with his music and producing new tracks in 2014. This created a new experiment and a new start. The Bang mixtape was being worked on in January, and the next month he exhibited his upcoming project, which was a mixtape ‘Back from the Dead 2’, a sequel to his mixtape ‘Back from the dead,’ which was critically acclaimed. He also confessed that his former poor mixing led to unsuccessful music in his two mixtape projects, ‘Bang part 2 and almighty so.’
The Glo gang, label:
One of his other ventures was Glo gang, a label that produced music from 2011, but it was only mixtape releases; however, it was also not fully functional. Many releases were planned under the brand after Chief Keef’s ‘Finally Rich’ in December 2012. There was also an album by Lil Reese, all set to release in a couple of months, but in 2014, Chief Keef announced that Glory Boyz Entertainment was not functional anymore; however, he also mentioned starting a new label under the name Glo gang.
Even with many controversial issues, legal issues, and personal life imbalances, Chief Keef made blockbuster hits and outperformed in the music industry. It is difficult to achieve with so many troubles but only people with hope and courage can reach heights in life.
