Chief Keef Performs First Headlining Show in Hometown of Chicago in Over a Decade
· Vice
Few artists represent Chicago as much as Chief Keef does. In telling the history of hip-hop in the Midwest city, his brash drill music and experimentation are vital in understanding the scene. However, for years, he was essentially blacklisted from venues across his city. Due to an uneasy relationship with then-mayor Rahm Emanuel and rival gangs, he left his home city for Los Angeles and has lived there ever since.
Over a decade later, he made a triumphant return at Kanye West’s homecoming. Still, the rapper born Keith Cozart hadn’t had his show proper in the city in years. Instead, he was relegated to performing in neighboring cities. Now, Chief Keef finally had his own headlining show in Chicago. In a sea of phone flashlights, he performed “Save That S**t” from his breakout mixtape Back From The Dead. Check it out below:
Visit tr-sport.bond for more information.
Chief Keef returned home for his first show in the City of Chicago in 14 years.
— Andrew Barber (@fakeshoredrive) September 24, 2026
His last show in the city was at Lollapalooza 2012 where he performed the opening set. Last night he sold out Northerly Island with approximately 30,000 people in attendance. pic.twitter.com/kbqVHkfeYk
This made for an especially cathartic moment for Keef, considering he wasn’t even sure he’d made it to the Bears stadium. Before his own homecoming, he told journalist Mark Braboy how grateful he was to finally grace the stage again in his home city with Ye.
“I didn’t think I would make it as far as Soldier Field,” Keef told the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s a good feeling to be able to do stuff like that. And then the stage is crazy; I’ve never been on a stage like that before. That was kind of cool, bro, to be with all the ‘Chiraq’ legends.”
Chief Keef Makes His Triumphant Return to His Home City of Chicago After Spending Over a Decade Away
It wasn’t until 2024 that Keef had a real potential chance of headlining his own show back in Chicago. After Mayor Brandon Johnson took office, the 31-year-old rapper and his manager, Idris “Peeda Pan” Abdul-Wahid, sat down with the newly elected official. Ultimately, Johnson wanted the doors to be open for any Chicago-bred artist to perform in the city, Chief Keef included.
“Once Mayor Johnson, once he got in, that provided us the opportunity to really have a sit-down with someone that we knew would hear things out and try to work with us in whatever way we needed and have certain safeguards in place,” Abdul-Wahid said.
Nowadays, Chief Keef lives in Los Angeles. But admittedly, he said he wants to finally leave the place he called home for over a decade. Whether he heads back to Chicago is ultimately up in the air. “I’m tired of LA; one of these days, I’mma get the f*** outta here. I’ve been here for a while, and it’s time for something new,” he shared.
(Photo by Erika Goldring/Getty Images)
The post Chief Keef Performs First Headlining Show in Hometown of Chicago in Over a Decade appeared first on VICE.