Chief Keef

Chief Keef
Chief Keef performing at Lollapalooza, 2012.
Born	Keith Cozart (1995-08-15) August 15, 1995 (age 21) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Residence	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Other names	Chief Sosa, Almighty Sosa, Sosa
Occupation	Rapper record producer
Years active	2011–present
Children	3
Website	www.chiefkeef.com
Musical career
Genres	Hip hop, drill
Labels	Glo Gang 1017 Brick Squad FilmOn Music
Associated acts	Fredo Santana Gucci Mane Lil Reese Young Chop

Keith Cozart (born August 15, 1995), better known by his stage name Chief Keef, is an American rapper and record producer from Chicago, Illinois. During his teenage years and while under house arrest, Keef's music videos were met with acclaim from local high school students. His increasing popularity led to him being the subject of a brief bidding war among labels. Ultimately, Keef signed a major record deal with Interscope Records and later signed with 1017 Brick Squad. Keef also became the CEO of his own record label, Glory Boyz Entertainment, which later developed into Glo Gang. His debut album Finally Rich was released on December 18, 2012.

Since becoming famous, Keef has continued to experience ongoing legal issues. Despite being dropped from Interscope in late 2014, Keef continued self-releasing mixtapes through his Glo Gang label. Although Keef had originally planned Bang 3 to be released as his second album, a then-track from the album, "Nobody", developed into its own project. Keef released Nobody as a full-length album in December 2014, while continuing to delay the often-pushed back Bang 3.

Chief Keef was born Keith Cozart in Chicago, Illinois when his mother was 16, and is named after his deceased uncle. He grew up in the Parkway Garden Homes, located in the Washington Park neighborhood on the city's South Side. Keef is estranged from his biological father; when he was a minor, Keef's legal guardian was his grandmother, whom he lived with during his residence in Chicago. He began rapping at a very young age, regularly listed as 5, using his mother's karaoke machine and blank tapes to record his music. During his childhood, Keef attended Dulles Elementary School and the Banner School, a therapeutic day school. Keef dropped out of Dyett High School at age 15.

In 2011, Keef first earned local attention from Chicago's South Side community with his mixtapes, The Glory Road and Bang. In December, Keef fired gunshots from a Pontiac Grand Prix in Chicago's Washington Park neighborhood. Police showed up at the scene and the incident resulted in Keef being arrested and charged with unlawful use of a weapon. Keef was consequently placed under house arrest at his grandmother's house for 30 days, followed by another 30 days of home confinement. It has been noted that by the time this incident occurred, Keef had already achieved local South Side popularity, and that much of his early fan base consisted of high school students in the area. While under house arrest, Keef posted several videos to his YouTube account. These videos were at the forefront of Chicago's hip hop subgenre, drill. The attention he received increased during the short time between the release of his mixtapes, Bang and Back From the Dead, and music videos, including "Bang", "3Hunna" and "I Don't Like". Once his house arrest ended, WorldStarHipHop released a video of a child hysterically celebrating Keef's release from house arrest, affording Keef further virality. Early in his music career, Keef's song "I Don't Like" became a local hit in Chicago, which was described by a local party promoter, as "the perfect Chicago song because 'niggas just hate everything out here.'" It also caught fellow Chicago rapper Kanye West's attention, and West created a remix of the song with rappers Pusha T, Jadakiss and Big Sean. In response to these events, David Drake of Spin writes that in 2012, Keef "suddenly shot up out of obscurity."