Chief Keef - "Nobody"

[StevePulaski]

Nobody (2014)
By: Chief Keef

Rating: ★

After Chicago rapper Chief Keef was dropped from Interscope Records, presumably for underperforming album sales and a whirlwind of inconsistent (and predominately) unfinished releases that weren't generating anywhere near the buzz his first two street singles managed to conjure up, Keef confirmed any official mixtape or album release would be released under his "Glo Gang" label. What followed shortly after this announcement was the release of Back from the Dead 2, Keef's first mixtape in over a year, which proved to be nothing but a compilation of dreary production and abysmal lyricism. Following Back from the Dead 2 is not another mixtape, a studio album, or even an EP, but a proclaimed "digital album" by the name of Nobody. Anybody in Keef's intercircle recognizes that name as the title of the much-anticipated track Keef teased back in August, which featured Kanye West. One would hope with such a high-caliber hip-hop name in the mix, Keef would encompass the anticipated track with songs at least of some lyrical and instrumental quality.

This is on the contrary, however, as Nobody is single-handedly the worst Chief Keef-released byproduct in his career. As many know, Keef was admitted to rehab at the tail-end of the summer of 2014 for his addiction to the popular street concoction known as "lean," and claimed his previously-released mixtapes, Bang 2 and Almighty So, suffered in quality due to his addiction to the beverage. Nobody sounds like it was recorded while that addiction was still present, as this is a horribly incoherent piece of work, even worse than Bang 2, which at least merited some tolerable songs. Nobody, on the other hand, is dismal from top to bottom, creating an annoying and insufferable ambiance through the presence of simplistic, dreamlike instrumentation and atrocious lyricism delivered by Keef in a manner that sounds like pitifully bad, spoken-word rap.

Tracks like "Oh Lawd," featuring fellow Glo Gang member Tadoe, Keef's cousin, "Funny," and "Pit Stop" are instantly ruined by the abundance of autotune Keef uses, a feature that has scarcely worked in his favor, in addition to the delivery of his verses sounding stunted and as if he's in a permanent daze (with all the marijuana Keef is known to smoke, he may as well be). The titular track, even with the help of Kanye, is a pathetic one. Unlike with Big Gucci Sosa (Keef's mixtape with Gucci Mane, which I'm still looking to review in the near future), where Gucci presumably required Keef to put a bit more effort in his lyricism, the presence of Kanye doesn't seem to influence Keef to perform better in any particular way whatsoever. The track is even ruined early on by the presence of a cloying soundbite stating "you really don't understand, do you?" numerous times, making the track seem like a low-grade inclusion on a poor man's mixtape than a formal release by an artist who is asking for your money for this particular product.

Other songs like "Aint Just Me" and "Fast n Furious" are simply burdened by lazy lyricism and delivery, creating songs that are insufferable from the get-go. With no release since Bang 2 being impressive on virtually any level and the notion that Keef doesn't seem at all motivated to work any harder on a piece he's asking fans to pay for than one of his mixtapes, if Keef doesn't seem to care about the quality of his music, why should we, the fans, any more?