Chief Keef Returns To Chicago To Headline Summer Smash Festival
Chief Keef is coming home. In the early ’10s, the teenage Sosa popularized Chicago drill, and the genre has now swept across the planet. During his rise to fame, though, Keef was constantly in trouble with the law, and his Chicago performances were shut down again and again. For more than a decade, Keef has essentially been banned in Chicago.
In 2015, Keef, already living in Los Angeles, tried to do a live hologram show in Chicago to raise funds for the family of a child who was killed in a hit-and-run, and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel refused to allow the show to happen. The performance was moved to Indiana, and it was still shut down by police. This summer, however, Chief Keef is finally making his long-awaited return to Chicago as a headliner at Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash festival.
Chief Keef has been having a big year. He appeared alongside Lil Yachty on the Lyrical Lemonade track “Say Ya Grace,” and he and Mike Will Made-It also released the mixtape Dirty Nachos, which includes the viral-hit Sexyy Red collab “Damn Shorty.” Now, he’s at the top of a major rap festival in his hometown. Playboi Carti and Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack crew are also headlining Summer Smash, but the real main event will be Keef on that final night.
Summer Smash goes down 6/14-17 at Seatgeek Stadium, which is really in Bridgeview, right outside Chicago. The lineup includes Denzel Curry, Kodak Black, Big Sean, JID, Flo Milli, Lil Yachty, Waka Flocka Flame, That Mexican OT, Ski Mask The Slump God, Lucki, Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely, Lil Tecca, YG Marley, Mick Jenkins, BabyTron, Lil B, Cash Cobain, TiaCorine, Nettspend, Xaviersobased, and many others. Check here for all the info. Now, please enjoy some footage of Chief Keef onstage with Lil Durk and Lil Reese at Chicago’s Congress Theater in 2012.