Chief Keef
Keith Farrelle Cozart (born August 15, 1995), better known by his stage name Chief Keef, is an American rapper and record producer. Born and raised in South Side Chicago, he began his recording career as a teenager and initially garnered regional attention and praise for his mixtapes in the early 2010s. Cozart is often credited with popularizing the hip hop subgenre drill for mainstream audiences, and is considered a progenitor of the genre.
His fifth mixtape, Back from the Dead (2012), spawned the single "I Don't Like" (featuring Lil Reese), which became a local hit and marked his first entry on the Billboard Hot 100. A bidding war between several major labels resulted in Cozart signing with Interscope Records, who commercially re-released the song, along with its follow-up, "Love Sosa", which received quintuple platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Both served as lead singles for his debut studio album, Finally Rich (2012), which was met with moderate critical and commercial response, serving as his only release on a major label. His subsequent studio albums—Bang 3 (2015), Bang 3, Pt. 2 (2015), 4Nem (2021), and Almighty So 2 (2024)—have each entered the Billboard 200 as self-releases. Two of his guest appearances—on Lil Uzi Vert's 2020 song "Bean (Kobe)" and Drake's 2023 song "All the Parties"—have peaked within the Billboard Hot 100's top 40.
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