Chief Keef has been a big name in the hip hop world for a decade now, after he released his first major-label album Finally Rich in 2012 at only 16 years old. This is an album that has made an impact on the hip hop community and influenced other artists to make music in a style similar to Chief Keef.

The Chicago rapper has been a big name in his city since his rapid rise to fame in the early 2010s. Even before releasing his music, he was heavily involved in Chicago’s gun epidemic as a teenager. A major part of his success in 2012 was when Kanye West, another huge name out of Chicago, remixed his song “I don’t like” as a part of his Good Music Cruel Summer project.

While Finally Rich was his first and biggest release at the time, it was pretty similar to other mixtapes he had made while on house arrest. Most of these featured Keef rapping about guns, gangs, and violence over trap beats. Though he has released countless albums and mixtapes since Finally Rich, none bring the same energy and appeal in my opinion. The instrumentals, lyrics, and sound here are so simple yet effective and they work great with Keef’s youthful energy.

This project is one of those albums that is still heavily played ten years later. It features some of Chief Keef’s most easily recognizable songs; the whole vibe of this album is Keef saying, “I made it”. This is shown on songs like “Ballin’” and “Finally Rich”. He talks about his rise to the top and what he had to fight through to make it. When people think of Chief Keef, they think of Finally Rich, and one song in particular.

“Love Sosa” is easily Chief Keef’s biggest song, and the song that put him on the map. This is still his most popular single today and is considered by many fans to be one of the most iconic hip hop songs of the last decade. In 2012, it peaked at number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100. “Love Sosa” changed Chief Keef’s career, and it is a song that is still commonly heard on social media.

This song will likely always be Keef’s biggest song, there is just so much that makes it good. The intro to this song before Keef starts rapping was taken from a video of a Chief Keef fan defending his name, threatening anyone who is hating on him. After this, we hear Keef rapping with his memorable flow. Even though trends in music are constantly changing and evolving, this is a song that has already gone down in hip hop history.

Though Keef has released over 40 mixtapes and albums since the release of Finally Rich in 2012, there are none that compare. Tracks such as “Love Sosa”, “I Don’t Like”, and “Hate Bein’ Sober” are some of his best works, and I honestly don’t think he will be able to top this project.