Last week, the Chicago rapper Chief Keef turned 25. That is insane. Keith Cozart has been one of the most influential figures in rap music for nearly a decade, and it’s hard to even picture how the present-day musical landscape would sound without him. And yet the man has only been old enough to rent a car for six days.

For plenty of reasons, like the legal problems that prevent him from actually visiting his hometown, Keef has largely been unable to capitalize on his own influence. These days, Keef mostly works in his own lane, making spaced-out melodic Auto-Tuned music and only occasionally intersecting with the rap mainstream that he impacted so deeply. (For instance, Keef produced one of the best songs on Lil Uzi Vert’s 2020 hit Eternal Atake, but he didn’t rap on it.) But that may be changing, thanks to an alliance with one of rap’s biggest producers.

Right now, Keef is working on a full collaborative album with the hitmaking Atlanta producer Mike Will Made-It — a real sign of all the goodwill that he’s accumulated over the years. Today, he’s shared a new Mike Will-produced single called “Bang Bang.” It’s a twist on the bleak, ominous drill music that Keef made as a teenager, and from its title to its whispered ad-libs, it calls back to Keef’s classic mixtape material. Keef raps the whole song in a deceptively agile groan. He sounds like he’s in fighting shape. Listen below.

“Bang Bang” is out now on the streaming services.