Chief Keef - "Feed the Streets"

[StevePulaski]

Feed the Streets (2015)
By: Chief Keef

Rating: ★★★

I'm not even going to begin to try and explain the multitude of ways in which the tracklist for Chief Keef's unauthorized mixtape Feed the Streets is unbelievably wrong. Song titles are so obscured and incredibly disorganized that it's best to just Google certain lines of songs in order to get the correct title than go off the tracklist.

However, that's really the worst part of Feed the Streets , which serves as an unofficial compilation of Keef songs that were stand alone releases from his mixtapes or rumored tracks of his long-awaited Bang 3 album. For the most part, the mixtape is an efficient catalog of Keef's strongest releases over the last of couple years.

There's "Fool Ya," the aggressive, briskly paced Keef song that made it out in October 2014 before being released on his mixtape Almighty DP, "Either Way," the heavily mixed, auto-tune drenched tune that has Keef somewhat recalling his drill ways after stints of experimental cloud rap, "Shifu," an early Bang 3 ditty that is short for "s*** fugazy," and "War," another hard-hitting Keef number that has him spitting violent, sometimes unbelievably strong bars.

One interesting note is how this mixtape is paced and much more even than any Keef release of recent. Melodic songs and more aggressive songs are introduced not with sledgehammer-like subtlety and build to a certain pleasantness throughout. Of course, songs like "No," a thoroughly haunting and eerie Keef song, are still burdened with annoying commonalities like Keef's incessant descriptions of the "packs" of weed he's smoking on. The inclusions here are especially cringeworthy and downright stupid as he almost effectively ruins the mood with plain stupidity concerning his weed, known as "cat pack" for its stench, while we, the audience, are said to be smoking on "wet pack," which comes from "the asscrack." Again, more lame and childish lyrics that don't mesh well with this hardened gangsta image Keef loves to own.

However, listening to Feed the Streets, if nothing else, reminds you of Keef's diversity and experimentation with sound better than any of his frequently droning and monotonous mixtapes ever could. Consider "How it Go," a lively, almost boppy track that features Keef in one of his happiest states in recent memory with a song like "War," a brutal and uncommonly fierce track that has Sosa sounding more agitated than ever. I may not always get behind the latest Keef project but I will never say that for somebody his age that he isn't a risk-taker with his music.

Feed the Streets is an effective compilation of tracks, some big winners, some major-minor tracks, and other ones that are forgettable but largely inoffensive. However, I must pose the question, when a compilation album of an artist's tracks, most of which he leaves off of mixtapes, is better than his last three or four official mixtapes, what does that say about said artist?

Recommended tracks (in order): "How it Go," "Fool Ya," "Either Way," "No," "War," and "Slam Dunkin'."