The 10 Worst Things Written About Chief Keef This Week

This past October, the critical reception of Kendrick Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city became as much of a talking point as the album itself, if only for how overwhelmingly positive it was. Two months later, Chief Keef's Finally Rich—another major label debut—is the focus of This Week's Over-Intellectualized Rap Dialogue, but for completely opposite reasons.

Over the course of a few days' reviews, critics have slammed the album as "woeful" and "unbearable," compared it to a 19th century minstrel show, and linked it to last week's shooting in Newtown, CT. These pieces of  the capital-C Conversation about Keef seem to shrug off reviewing the record in favor of projecting some kind of agenda onto it.

That's why Complex sees it as our duty to call out these perpetrators (or sneak dissers, as the case may be). These are the 10 Worst Things Written About Chief Keef This Week.

Edward McClelland, NBC Chicago

Chief Keef isn't wearing blackface, nor is it 1850. Calling Finally Rich a "minstrel show" is, well, racist, if not at least stunningly out of line. More appropriately, the album is the success story of a "real live South Side thug." Chief Keef is obsessed with gangbanging because he grew up in one of the most violent environments in America. If anything, his album depicts music as a way to escape that life, and offers commentary on it instead of outright abandonment of his past.

Jesse Cataldo, Slant

Death threats?

Chief Keef's comments about the death of rival Chicago rapper Lil Jojo were no doubt inflammatory, but they were irresponsible taunts, not threats.

Jim DeRogatis, WBEZ 91.5

Want to see sensationalism? Watch a critic compare the massacre of a bunch of unarmed children to the release of a rap album. Then read Marilyn Manson's essay about Columbine after.

Jon Caramanica, New York Times

Caramanica's the homie, and yes, the album's dark. But lifeless?

Nah.

James Shotwell, Under The Gun

First: it's Auto-Tune, not vocoder. Second: instead of being a hyperbolic drama queen and giving up music, you can just listen to something else.

Jonathan Landrum Jr., Associated Press

If you were a poor, jailed, 16-year-old father who became a millionaire celebrity overnight, you'd be like:

...too.

Mark Guarino, Salon

Or maybe it's just because Chief Keef's songs are better?

Randall Roberts, Los Angeles Times

Paging your fact-checking department: The lyric is "Big shouts out to my jeweler." Also, nice racially-charged cheap shot at Keef's education. Alternative: "These lyrics suck because Chief Keef is dumb and you know he didn't try in school." But he's in the back of a Bentley like:

...anyway.

Ryan Reed, Paste

So, Chief Keef's album is good. But not because of him. Gotcha. Great logic.

Jim DeRogatis, WBEZ 91.5

Translation: "Those black teens and their ebonics! Sure are difficult to understand!"

Class dismissed.