Chicago rapper Chief Keef and his debut album Finally Rich just hit the shelves yesterday, but already critics of the 17-year-old rapper have surfaced. In Keef’s backyard, a blogger for a local NBC affiliate has taken aim at the Windy City artist by referring to his music as a “minstrel show.” 

Blogger Edward McClelland published an opinion piece this morning on Chicago NBC 5′s website this morning, explaining that until last week he intended to purchase Chief Keef’s major label debut.  McClelland was especially critical of Keef’s output, but admitted he was curious about the teenaged sensation’s music and its depiction of Chicago’s highly publicized gang violence. Moved to change his interest in Keef’s music by the Newtown shooting tragedy, McClelland attacked the burgeoning “Drill” scene.

From Edward McClelland’s blog entry:

[F]rom what I’ve heard of it, is pretty lunkheaded: simplistic rhymes, primitive beats. But it’s also a window into the world that has made Chicago the murder capital of America, and that piqued my curiosity…Since last week’s murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, though, I haven’t had the stomach for any violent entertainment…I also don’t want to pay $14 for the minstrel show of listening to a real live South Side thug. I don’t want to support a scene that makes gangbanging a resume builder for music success.

McClelland is well within rights to question his investment in Chief Keef’s music as a result of the horrific events at Sandy Hook Elementary. However, why were the violent, gang-related deaths of countless African-Americans in his beloved Chicago over the summer not enough to sway him from buying Finally Rich in the first place?

via:hiphopwired.com