Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Guardian music

Chief Keef says he will run for mayor of Chicago

Chief Keef
Chief Keef … mayoral material. Photograph: AP

Chief Keef has responded to the shutting down of his gig-by-hologram on Saturday by declaring his intention to run for mayor of Chicago, and telling his fans to call the incumbent mayor – former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel – “and tell him to stay the fuck off the people’s music”.

The rapper had planned to play a concert-by-hologram in Chicago last week – he is reluctant to visit the city owing to outstanding warrants pertaining to child support – to benefit campaigns to “stop the violence” in the city, and raise funds for the families of his friend Capo, a Chicago rapper who was killed in a shooting earlier this month, and of 13-month-old Dillan Harris, who was killed by a car fleeing the scene of the shooting.

Mayor Emanuel’s office prevented Keef participating in any Chicago event, and so he appeared by hologram instead 25 miles away in Hammond, Indiana, at Craze Fest, where the show was shut down by police shortly after he appeared.

Hammond’s mayor, Thomas McDermott Jr, had told the New York Times he had never heard of Chief Keef. “All I’d heard was he has a lot of songs about gangs and shooting people – a history that’s anti-cop, pro-gang and pro-drug use. He’s been basically outlawed in Chicago, and we’re not going to let you circumvent Mayor Emanuel by going next door.”

Chief Keef has evidently decided Emanuel, rather than McDermott, is his enemy in this matter. He tweeted the mayor’s publicly listed city number and asked his fans to call it.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.