Chief Keef Now: Where He Is, Biography, Kids & More

Real name: Keith Farrelle Cozart ·
Born: August 15, 1995 ·
Origin: Chicago, Illinois, U.S. ·
Genres: Drill, trap ·
Years active: 2011–present ·
Known children: 5

Eight identifiers, one pattern: the public record is stable on the basics and fuzzy on everything personal.

Where is Chief Keef now?

The short version: he’s still recording, still releasing, and still running his own operation. Media reports place him in Los Angeles, though the address isn’t officially confirmed. The bigger change is structural — after Interscope, Chief Keef built a release pipeline that doesn’t need a major label’s permission.

Is Chief Keef under house arrest?

• No current source reviewed for this profile places him under house arrest in 2025.
• The house-arrest chapter in his story belongs to 2012, the same year the Interscope deal closed.

That distinction matters because his teenage legal record still gets recycled as if it were current news. The 2012 gun charge was real, and so was the house arrest; neither describes the artist who now signs other artists.

Does Chief Keef still live in Chicago?

After the Interscope years ended, Chief Keef adopted a self-directed release strategy that The Drift, a music-and-culture magazine, documents as a turn toward mixtapes and independent projects (The Drift). The catalog that followed includes Bang 3, 4NEM, and Almighty So 2. In June 2022, he announced 43B — the latest name in a label lineage that began with Glory Boyz Entertainment and Glo Gang — launched with RBC Records and BMG Rights Management (Complex). The releases kept coming through the 2020s without a major-label schedule, and his social channels stay active enough to keep fans guessing about the next drop.

The implication: the geography question is a distraction. The label infrastructure — 43B with real distribution behind it — is the actual story of his late-career move.

What did Chief Keef do at 16?

The neat answer: he became the most talked-about teenager in rap. The messy answer involves a gun charge, house arrest, a viral single, and a major-label deal — roughly in that order.

Did Chief Keef go to jail at 16?

• At 16, he was charged with waving a gun at a police officer, a case that led to house arrest before he signed with Interscope in 2012 (Mic).
• The following year, 2013, brought a drug arrest and a stretch in juvenile detention.

The period is often compressed into a “bad kid becomes star” story. What the record shows is a teenager whose legal trouble and musical breakthrough happened at the same time — and whose label deal closed while he was still on a court’s leash.

What song did Chief Keef release at 16?

His Wikipedia biography describes “I Don’t Like” as his breakout single, one that drew a remix from Kanye West (Wikipedia biography). Before that, videos like “Bang” and “300” had built his reputation on the city’s South Side (WBEZ Chicago). By the end of 2012, he had a major-label debut, Finally Rich, plus a reported Interscope deal worth approximately $6 million — a figure The Drift, a music-and-culture magazine, says should be treated cautiously (The Drift).

The implication: the “at 16” story is usually told as a scandal, but it reads better as a fork in the road. The legal system pushed one way, the industry another, and the music chose for him.

How many kids did Chief Keef get?

Five is the number most commonly listed in public profiles, though it isn’t officially confirmed and some sources count higher. The gap between “known” and “total” is exactly why this stays in the unclear column.

Who are the mothers of Chief Keef’s children?

• The mothers are not consistently identified across the profiles reviewed for this piece.
• Public counts of his children range from five to seven depending on the source.

His Wikipedia biography includes his children in its personal-life section, but the details shift depending on when the page was updated and which outlets are doing the counting (Wikipedia biography). For a profile that separates confirmed from unconfirmed, the honest answer is: at least five known children, with the ceiling still open.

What are the names of Chief Keef’s kids?

Names that circulate publicly include a daughter, Kayden, and sons whose circulated names include Kruize and Keef. He often posts about his children on social media, which keeps the counts in motion and the record messy.

The catch: “how many kids” is the question fans ask like trivia and tabloids ask like a ledger. The verified answer bottoms out at five known children; the rest is private.

What kind of rapper is Chief Keef?

Chief Keef is a drill rapper — the artist most associated with taking Chicago drill from neighborhood CDs to national streaming playlists. His sound: minimalist beats, blunt delivery, and lyrics that treat the street as a matter of fact rather than fantasy.

What is drill music?

• Drill is a subgenre of hip-hop that emerged from Chicago’s South Side in the early 2010s.
• It’s defined by slow, menacing tempos and clipped, matter-of-fact delivery.
• Its lyrics describe the real conditions of the neighborhoods that produced it.

Drill’s raw material is lived experience, which is why it sounded so different from the polished radio rap of the same era. Chief Keef didn’t invent the template, but he became its most visible carrier.

How did Chief Keef influence drill rap?

Contemporary accounts describe him as one of the artists most responsible for bringing Chicago drill to mainstream audiences, with Finally Rich translating the sound and imagery to a national stage (Mic). The independent-era catalog — Bang 3, 4NEM, Almighty So 2 — kept that sound active without label interference.

What this means: drill is now global, but Chief Keef remains its reference point. Most of the rappers working in that style today are building on the sound he pushed into the mainstream.

Why did Chief Keef get kicked out of OBlock?

The honest version: the “kicked out of OBlock” story is widely repeated and thinly documented. Public accounts link it to gang activity and legal trouble around the housing project, but no official source confirms the ejection or its reasons.

Is OBlock a real place?

• OBlock is a real Chicago housing project, referenced constantly in drill lyrics.
• It appears throughout Chief Keef’s early catalog and the reporting on that era.

The project’s name is part of drill’s geography. What’s harder to pin down is when he left and whether it was a formal ban or a survival decision.

Did Chief Keef have conflicts with other members?

Rumors of friction with OBlock-affiliated rappers have circulated for years, but the specifics aren’t documented in the sources reviewed for this profile. What’s clear is the shape of the career arc: he emerged from OBlock’s scene, and his path moved away from it as fame and legal pressure grew.

The pattern: the question itself is myth-making. Fans want a clean break story; the available record offers a messy, partially private one. For another profile that separates a public figure’s documented history from his disputed claims, see Terrence Howard: Career, Theories, and the Joe Rogan Connection.

Chief Keef’s timeline

Eight dates, one pattern: every major leap forward came right after a legal or label wall appeared.

The pattern: the legal and label chaos of 2012–2014 forced the independence that followed. What started as damage control became a business model.

Confirmed facts vs. lingering rumors

The left column is sourced in the sections above; the right column is where the record goes fuzzy.

The pattern: Chief Keef’s verified record is the durable one; the rest feeds a rumor cycle that keeps his name circulating without adding to the file.

Quotes from the people around Chief Keef

“I don’t really care about the industry, I just do my own thing.”

Chief Keef, 2015 interview with The Fader

“Chief Keef changed the sound of rap.”

Zaytoven, producer

The two quotes frame the same career from opposite ends: he calls the industry a sideshow; a producer who shaped the era credits him with rewiring the industry’s sound. For another artist whose second act is easy to miscount, see Jay Kay (Jamiroquai): Career, Net Worth & 2026 Tour.

The takeaway

Chief Keef’s story is usually told as a rise, a fall, and a shrug. The closer read: the same instincts that made him a teenage sensation — blunt lyrics, minimal beats, allergic to authority — are what let him walk away from major labels and build his own. For the Chicago rappers who grew up on his mixtapes, the choice is clear: sign with an artist-run label like 43B that understands drill from the inside, or repeat the major-label cycle that once boxed him in.

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