Chief Keef - Dedication

Chief Keef
Dedication
2017
Spotify

It's been a slow five years for Chief Keef but a very busy last few months. Dedication will be the fourth album he's put out this year after a long period without hits or really anything. Chief had already cemented himself as a Chicago Drill stalwart before He was banned from performing in the city. With so much production this year you would expect this album to feel thrown together, and in some ways it does. The production feels rushed, the songs repetitive and predictable but there is still something totally endearing about Chief at the same time. I really locked into the record around "Bad" and "Text". On paper I should hate all of this because it breaks all the rules I set up for hip hop. It's basic, it's slow, it's repetitive and it's constant posturing but i'll be damned if you can't click in and really start to enjoy this record. I would love it to have more depth and more production quality but it would loose that DIY spirit that Soundlcloud rappers have always embraced. There is also a heavy dose of trap here as you would expect but it goes through this almost horror movie filter. More and more these days you see old horror aesthetics spilling into hip hop . That vibe is all over this record even more so that Jadakiss and Fabolous' release last month on which the entire concept was Freddy vs. Jason. It comes much more naturally to Chief Keef and doesn't feel like He is forcing something popular onto the record just for popularity's sake.

This vibe goes over the top on "Let Me See" with this beats that is absolutely insane. It has this shaky orchestral back with trap drums layered on top that makes you so fucking anxious it's hard to listen to but also awesome in it's own way. It almost makes you happy to listen to the madness just to see where Chief goes next. While listening though I keep thinking I am alone in actually digging this. None of this is getting played in any club, nor on the radio so the audience for this kind of record feels very niche. It's almost like something that you want to hear right now, but likely will never revist again even if you never have a bad word to say about it. I find myself totally conflicted and confused on this one almost to the point where I don't know how to rate it. For now Dedication will be sitting in limbo for me, ,unsure of exactly where to place it. But, it is pretty damn good.

6.9 out of 10