To the outside world, Chicago’s inner-city streets may as well be a war-torn region of death, drugs and destruction as the murder rates within the city’s ghettos continues to skyrocket at an alarming pace. But from those violent streets, two emcees, Lupe Fiasco and Chief Keef, have risen from the chaos and into world of rap superstardom. But it seems like the strife of their city is now tearing them apart as well.
Last week, Lupe said in an interview with Baltimore’s 92Q that young rappers like Chief Keef scare him because of the violence they promote in Chi-town.
“Chief Keef scares me,” Lupe said. “Not him specifically, but just the culture that he represents. … The hoodlums, I don’t wanna call Chief Keef a hoodlum, but the hoodlums, the gangsters and the ones you see killing each other. The murder rate in Chicago is skyrocketing and you see who’s doing it and perpetrating it, they all look like Chief Keef.”
“… And to hear the things that he raps about specifically. Comparing it to you open up the newspaper and there’s 22 shootings this weekend. And the next day there’s three. And you know who’s doing it, it scares me.” Lupe added.
After a week of silence, Keef, who recently laughed off the shooting death of rival emcee Lil JoJo, went on the defense and fired off a threat toward Lupe on Twitter.
“Lupe fiasco a hoe a— ni—a And wen I see him I’ma smack him like da lil b—ch he is #300,” he wrote.
Keef’s threat led to an exchange between the two rappers, in which he claimed that he would not beef with Keef, who retweeted Lupe’s responses.
“I cant go 4 that @ChiefKeef & i cant let the people i love, including you my ni—a, go 4 that either. We kings not f—ing savages and goons,” wrote Lupe, adding, “i love u lil bruh @ChiefKeef…i really really do from the bottom of my f—ing heart. I know that street s–t like the back of my hand.”
Around an hour later, Keef then claimed that his Twitter page had been hacked.
“my twitter has been hacked I think I’m making a new one dumb hating a— people #DontWannaSeeAYougNi—aShine,” he posted.
If Keef was indeed the one who sent the threat, then it’s saddening that the young emcee doesn’t see that the same violent attitude that Lupe was previously shedding a light on is manifesting itself in not only his music, but in his aggressive attack towards Lupe. Sadly, Keef’s aggression, while obviously entertaining to many hip-hop fans, perpetuates a culture of violence that has his hometown in a literal death grip that leaves its enraged youth trapped in a world where their sense of self-worth is lost, their sense of humanity is dying and their bodies are ultimately soon to follow.
But that wasn’t the end of the ordeal for Lupe, who recently cried during an episode of MTV’s “RapFix Live” over his fallen Chicago friends. Lupe previously claimed that he would retire from “mainstream” music after the release of his follow up to Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1, but in a series of tweets he revealed that this will likely be his last album, period.
Read Lupe’s hip-hop swan song below. –nicholas robinson
