Chief Keef
photo: glenjamn3 · cc by 3.0 ↗Keith Cozart was sixteen and on house arrest on Chicago's South Side when he recorded "I Don't Like," the 2012 single that gave drill music its name and its blueprint. His slurred, melodic, ad-lib-heavy delivery on Back from the Dead and Finally Rich made him the genre's central figure and, eventually, one of the most imitated vocal styles in trap and mumble rap.
Waka Flocka's bellowing ad-libs and stripped-down, horror-movie-synth trap on Flockaveli gave Chief Keef and the GBE crew a template — Waka's signature "Squaaad" holler gets abbreviated straight into Keef's own "Squah."
listen forLine up "Hard in da Paint" with "I Don't Like": same crushing 808 drop, same idea that the ad-lib is the hook.
Gucci Mane signed Chief Keef to his Brick Squad imprint in 2013 and spoke of seeing potential in him — the flat, matter-of-fact delivery over minimal, dread-heavy beats that Gucci pioneered in Atlanta became a direct template for early Chicago drill.
listen forSet "Lemonade" against "Love Sosa": both ride a spare, needling beat with a rapper who barely raises his voice, letting the menace sit in the flatness.
Soulja Boy was one of the first non-Chicago rappers Chief Keef collaborated with, and critics have traced Keef's dazed, melodic warble back to Soulja Boy's own stoned, singsong delivery — the DIY, internet-native approach both share runs even deeper.
listen forCompare "Crank That (Soulja Boy)" to "Faneto": under the different tempos, it's the same trick — a wobbly, half-sung hook repeated until it's unavoidable.