Keith Cozart, better known by his stage name Chief Keef, is an American rapper and record producer from Chicago, Illinois. Growing up in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood, Keef began rapping at an early age, and used his mother’s karaoke machine and blank tapes to record his music. 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 albumFinally Rich was released on December 18, 2012.

Since becoming famous, Keef has continued to experience ongoing legal issues. These legal issues, accompanied with Keef’s notability within Chicago’s drill music genre, have caused Keef to gain a gangster-like image, which has been compared with pastgangsta rappers, such as 50 Cent. 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 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.^[6] Keef dropped out of Dyett High School at age 15.