“Chief Keef scares me. Not him, specifically, but just the culture that he represents, specifically, in Chicago.”
Those controversial but honest words, spoken by Chicago-native Lupe Fiasco during a radio interview with AJ and Angel Bay of the Rap Attack show on 92Q Jams, have a sharper bite to them today, don’t they?
On Tuesday night, an up-and-coming teenage rapper from Chicago named Lil Jojo was murdered by gunfire. If you have been following the weekly chaos going on in Chicago, you would know that the news of another teenager being killed is nothing new. According to this horrifying piece Complex did, 38 teenagers were killed as of Monday, making Lil Jojo the 39th teenager to be murdered in Chicago this summer.
What makes Jojo’s case unique is what we know about the young man: He was a emerging young rapper from Chi-town, repping a crew called Bricksquad (which is not affiliated with Waka Flocka’s Brick Squad Monopoly) and he had beef with Chief Keef and Lil Reese, two rappers who rep their own 300 clique. We know that Jojo had a number of run-ins with Reese. And we know that hours before Jojo was gunned down, he released a video where he drives by Reese, yelling threats, while a passenger in the car screams, “I’m going to kill you.”
We also know Jojo was dead hours after he tweeted that video.
Rap superstar Chief Keef didn’t come into the picture until he sent out a series of sinister tweets Tuesday night:
(Now, to be fair, it’s not clear that the second tweet is about Jojo. But, still, tweeting something like that is not really the thing to be doing, hours after someone you had a grudge against got killed.)
Naturally, the Chicago police are on the case and they will be probing the Twitters of everyone involved. That should also include someone who goes by the name of OsoArrogant$wagg on Twitter, a friend of Jojo’s and someone who tweeted out “you dead” to Keef and his associate Lil Durk.
It’s scary, scary stuff out there, and it brings me back to that quote Lupe said a couple of days ago.
Lupe spoke honestly, as someone who loves his city, and as someone who deeply cares for its future. He wasn’t even sure if it made sense — his reaction was all emotional: “He scares me.” He made sure to say that what he represents scares him, not the rapper himself.
Lupe is right. We should be scared. Kids like him and Jojo are the story of Chicago youth nowadays.
Just take a look at some of the pinpoints of Keef’s life: grew up in a broken home; raised by an overworked grandmother; got into a lot of trouble in the streets; had a baby while still young and while still on probation.
The only difference between Keef and other Chicago teens is that he makes it out (and, obviously, that’s not much of a guarantee.)
To make matters worse, Keef, so far, has been rewarded for his brash, unapologetic behavior. We laugh and say “that’s crazy,” as he throws gang signs, does videos with websites at the gun range and puts pictures of threesomes on Instagram.
He’s more popular more than ever merely because of the thought of him, rather than because of him.
So how do you think a Chicago teen, who looks, acts and shares the story of Keef, is going to act?
My favorite moment involving Keef came yesterday when he sent out this tweet dedicated to Lupe:
Lupe answered with love:
Keef then retweeted what Lupe said. And then he said his Twitter was hacked and then proceeded to tweet a bunch of inspirational quotes that didn’t really sound like they were coming from the 17-year-old.
Who knows, maybe the adults got a hold of his Twitter … or finally talked some sense into him.
Dimas S.
Speaking of Twitter, @Milkman__Dead
