Year End Wrap Ups - Chief Keef - Thot Breaker

“She say she love me whatever that is / Do me a favor save that shit.”  For many, that was one of their first introductions to Chief Keef, and summarized a part of his world view in a perfectly succinct manner.  Back in 2012, riding on the heels of his breakthrough mixtape Back from the Dead and its single “I Don’t Like”, a clear image of Keef, the emotionless gangster with no time for anything besides drugs, guns, and women (or, more specifically, the parts of women he can use), was defined.  So five years later, and long after he could be considered to be at the top of the cultural conversation, what is there still to learn about Keith Cozart?  Well, that he might have a heart after all.


Thot Breaker, despite it’s ridiculous title, is almost single-mindedly dedicated to Keef’s new muse.  While he still falls back to pot, his favorite vice and perhaps the only thing he loves as much as this mystery woman, Keef is at least a partially changed man, and it shows in newfound focus.  Track titles like “My Baby”, “Can You Be My Friend”, “You My Number One”, Slow Dance”, and “You & Me” tell much of the story on their own, but it’s Keef’s improvement as a rapper that allows him to sell an album of love songs from someone who, in his words, used to be nothing more than a thug.  Where a younger Keef might “only want the neck” or view a woman calling him back as a “stalking ass bitch”, he now brags he’s “smiling and they know we didn’t have sex”, and even asking to “tell you who I am”.   The final moment of reflection comes when Keef admits to having sex with girlfriend’s sister, but then begs for forgiveness, admitting “I’m sorry I lied, I’m not that bright.”  Sure, it isn’t a perfect love story, but for someone who I once thought might truly be heartless, it’s more growth than I could’ve imagined.
On top of Keef’s growth emotionally and technically, Thot Breaker is also the final proof that Keef has gone from an amateur, to a capable, to a no-qualifiers good producer.  Whether assisted by Young Chop on the of-the-moment dancehall influenced “Can You Be My Friend” or solo on “You & Me”, his production is lush, interesting, and consistently inventive in its use of vocal samples.  At the end of the day, Thot Breaker functions as much as production showcase for Turbo, his production alias, as it does his emotional maturity, and by showing his growth both behind the mic and the boards it stands as possibly Keef’s best release yet, and one of the best mixtapes of 2017.

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