July 18--When the Rev. Michael Pfleger heard about rapper Chief Keef's planned "Stop the Violence Now" concert, he blew a gasket on Facebook.
"Chief Keef has announced that he will hold a benefit concert to raise funds for his friend and the baby who were killed this past weekend," the St. Sabina pastor wrote Monday. "REALLY...Chief Keef is one of the reasons we have all this violence...he has been one of the encourager's of the violence.....Instead of having a concert...why doesn't he man up and acknowledge it's time to stop this violence and APOLOGIZE for his part in it!!!! we don't need a concert...we need PEACE......7 DEAD and 24 SHOT this weekend and he wants to do a concert .... Chief Keef .... SHUT UP!!!!!"
The post has drawn thousands of responses, not all of them amens. Emotions were particularly raw, since the discussion involved a toddler who was killed in his stroller, another random victim of another Saturday firefight in Chicago.
Father Pfleger had it exactly right. His outrage was precise, on point. His words were far more productive than a Chief Keef rap concert, which isn't going to happen anyway.
The 19-year-old -- his real name is Keith Cozart -- had planned to perform Friday via hologram, from a soundstage in California. He couldn't come home to Chicago for fear of being arrested on a year-old warrant for nonpayment of child support.
The Pilsen theater that had agreed to host the event canceled Thursday. The concert's organizer blamed "the meddling, attention-seeking Father Pfleger."
Give us a break. Pfleger was drawing attention to yet another street outrage. Chief Keef's friend and fellow rapper Marvin Carr, aka Capo, was killed by a drive-by shooter in the South Shore neighborhood. A car allegedly fleeing the scene struck and killed 13-month-old Dillan Harris, who was sitting in his stroller at a bus stop.
A 13-month-old got caught in the middle of this madness and is dead.
The alleged driver, Antoine Watkins, 21, is being held without bail on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated fleeing and eluding police.
The concert was supposedly organized to benefit the toddler's family. Chief Keef said he'd also started the Stop the Violence Now Foundation to address the "out-of-control situation."
Pfleger wasn't the only person to recoil in disbelief.
It wasn't that long ago that fellow Chicago rapper Che "Rhymefest" Smith called Chief Keef "a spokesman for the Prison Industrial Complex."
"He represents the senseless savagery that white people see when the news speaks of Chicago violence," Smith wrote in a 2012 online essay.
Chief Keef grew up in Englewood, where drugs, gangs and guns are embedded in the landscape. Some of his earliest recordings were made while he was 16, living with his grandmother under house arrest for allegedly pointing a gun at a police officer. He's lost a stepbrother and a cousin to street violence.
As one commenter on Pfleger's Facebook page put it, he "made it out of Chicago alive."
Is Chief Keef really ready to denounce the violence? He ought to come back to Chicago and do it in person. Take responsibility -- starting with that outstanding warrant.
In the meantime, we hope Keef is busy writing lots of songs. If he wants to be a change agent, he's going to need some new material.
