Chief Keef made a triumphant return to his hometown of Chicago this weekend.
Hailing from the city’s South Side, the drill pioneer headlined the last day of Lyrical Lemonade’s Summer Smash Festival on Sunday (June 16). His setlist included classic bangers like “Faneto,” “Love Sosa,” and, of course, “Don’t Like. And as you might’ve guessed, the energy in the crowd was electric — luckily, the ground didn’t break like that viral video of a house party.
Cole Bennett, the Chicago area music director and executive behind Lyrical Lemonade told NBC 5 Chicago that Keef’s homecoming “feels like a true celebration” for the city. “He’s so integrated in Chicago and the hip-hop and music scene here. To bring him back home, in a way that feels like a true celebration,” Bennett said in an interview prior to Keef’s performance. “I truly think it will be one of the more memorable, iconic, talked about moments. Not just hip hop, live event history, but music history in general.”
The last time Keef performed live in the Chicago area was in 2012 during Lollapalooza, but he did perform in 2015 via hologram in nearby Hammond, Indiana before police shut it down because of pressure from the Chicago’s mayor’s office. In a statement, then-Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel called the rapper—who was 19 years old at the time—”an unacceptable role model” and this his music “promoted violence.” Keef retaliated by tweeting out the mayor’s phone number and said he was going to run for the mayor of Chicago.
The concert in Hammond was a “stop the violence” benefit and Keef’s first words on stage were, “If you got goals, achieve ’em. If you got dreams, believe ’em. Stop the violence, stop the killing, stop the nonsense. Let the kids grow up.” Keef couldn’t perform in Chicago at the time because two outstanding child support warrants.
Check out clips from Chief Keef’s Summer Smash performance below:
