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Chief Keef may smoke by himself, drink by himself, but I’m not too sure if he got hot ALL by himself.  

The 17-year-old rap phenomenon Chief Keef burst onto the music scene earlier this year when his video “I Don’t Like” went viral with currently 11.3 million YouTube views (the remix clocking in at 12.4 million views).

At the time GlobalGrind caught wind of the Back From The Dead rapper’s “I Don’t Like” video back in March, it had a little over a million views on YouTube. 

Since then, Chief Keef has gotten off house arrest and hit the road as one of the hottest new rappers coming out of the Windy City. 

To many people’s surprise, Kanye West sent out a cryptic message with Chief Keef’s “I Don’t Like” written in the classic G.O.O.D. Music black and red cover art, prompting many people to wonder, “What in the hell is Kanye going to do with Chief Keef?”

A week later, Chief Keef’s “I Don’t Like (Remix)” featuring Kanye, Jadakiss, Pusha T and Big Sean hit the ‘net and the music world went crazy. 

But shortly after the remix hit, 18-year-old “I Don’t Like” producer Young Chop spoke out against it, citing Kanye’s interpretation was the “sh*t he don’t like.” 

Chief Keef decided to exercise his Fifth Amendment rights and remain silent about Young Chop’s disgruntled reaction to the remix, but Keef’s true feelings about the hype around Yeezy have finally surfaced.  

Last night, Chief Keef tweeted:

 

 

Keef has since deleted that tweet (probably due to the good advice of his people), but the damage has already been done. 

My initial thoughts on Keef’s Kanye tweet was that he’s immature, young, and doesn’t quite understand the importance of keeping and maintaining relationships – at least for the sake of business. 

I personally DON’T think Kanye single-handedly made Chief Keef “hot,” but he did extend his audience and make him nationally known.

To Chief Keef’s credit, he definitely had a cult-following before Yeezy decided to remix his most popular track, but no one outside Chicago or the elitist bloggers who spotlighted the “3Hunna” rapper, knew anything about a Chief, and not a damn thing about a Keef, before Yeezy hopped on the remix. 

Yes, he might feel some kind of way that basically the whole world credits Kanye West for making him “hot,” but Keef has to learn two things about the industry: play your part and most importantly, play smart. 

Don’t send out a tweet talking about Kanye “ain’t do shit for me,” because now he’s really not going to do shit for you.

I actually got the chance to interview the teenage rapper (who I really like) and despite most of his awkward video interviews, he’s quite charismatic, bubbly, and confident about the music he makes. 

When I asked Keef what he wanted everyone to know about him, he simply said, “I ain’t 16, I’m 300,” and keeping it 300 may have burned a beneficial business bridge with Kanye.  

Across the board, Kanye’s worked with some of the hottest talent in music, not to mention, the man is damn near a musical genius.    

Kanye West is a pretty knowledgeable guy and certainly the person any new artist would love to co-sign their work.

So why burn that bridge?

Yeezy’s in the business of teaching people, and Yeezy certainly could have taught Chief Keef a few things about success. 

An ungrateful 17-year-old, now that’s that shit I don’t like. 

~Brittany Lewis 

Brittany Lewis is the Music Editor at GlobalGrind and a Howard University Alumna. Brittany considers herself seasoned on all the pop culture ish that matters. Follow her on Twitter @Buttercup_B.