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Chicago rapper Chief Keef has faced serious circumstances in his short music career. The 17-year-old is currently serving a 60-day sentence in juvenile detention on a gun charge. The presiding judge ruled that Keef had violated his probation after appearing in taped interview for Pitchfork at a gun range.
Keef’s recent incarceration and violent imagery in his lyrics have led to a lot of criticism toward the “Love Sosa” rapper, especially in the wake of the overwhelming violence in his hometown.
Keef’s manager, Dro Manuel, recently defended his client in an interview with The Best of Both Offices, saying he felt putting the burden of what’s happening in Chicago on the young rapper was unfair, and that people have a misconception of the real Chief Keef.
Manuel insists Keef is not a bad person, but just an entertainer who’s speaking on real life topics.
“He’s not the first to put reality-based lyrics [in his music], as far as like talking about what’s going on in the inner-city for real,” said Manuel. “I think that it’s kinda messed up that they wanna blame him for all the murders, all the crime and all this other stuff that’s going on in Chicago.”
While Manuel defends Keef against the idea that he’s in any way responsible for the high murder rate in Chicago, he does say that there is blame to go around- mostly on city officials and the media.
“Chicago hasn’t paid attention to Englewood [Chief Keef's neighborhood] since they thought they were getting the Olympics. That’s when they brought it out to the public like, ‘there’s all these murders happening in Englewood everyday,’ and that kinda backfired on them…after that, they haven’t brought it back up until Chief Keef.”
Manuel went on to say that he feels other Chi-town emcees haven’t spoken out enough about the lack of attention to the violent areas of the city, after the failed Olympic bid.
“And all of the other rappers that come from Chicago, they know that. They act like they don’t know that, but they know that. These problems have gone on here for a long time.”
Manuel also believes that Keef’s recent legal problems are mostly the fault of other people. When asked if he thought Pitchfork is responsible for Keef getting locked up he replied, “Pitchfork and whoever set that interview up, not saying any names, but yeah. I think so.”
Manuel said that he is confident Chief Keef will leave the detention center a changed man.
“I got a message from him that he’s had a wake-up call. This is a wake-up call for him,” he revealed. “I think he’s gonna come out a different person. I think he’s gonna come out with some new music, a new attitude…”
