In the weeks since the unauthorized December release of Nobody 2, a steady snow drift of songs cold like Iceman has been flowing from Chief Keef’s L.A. mansion, teasing a superprolific year.
If the track artwork is to be believed, we’ve got: “VV” from Almighty DP 3, “Macaroni Time Remix” from Black Ops 3, the reverb fried “Bitches In The Room” from Nobody 3, “Awkward” from Tha Cozart, “Rebull” from Back From The Dead 3, “Sosa Pain” from the (maybe?) Valentine’s Day release, Thotbreaker; and the Metro Boomin & DJ Spinz produced “Too Turnt” from Peacocks Peacoats Flavors & Papers. It’s hard to say where the tracks will end up — some of these projects have been awaited for months, others hadn’t even been teased — but you can cherish them in the SoundCloud stream for now.
Standing above the rest is instant classic “Tats,” a musical departure as unexpected for Keef as the melancholic twang of TMT 2015 favorite “Ain’t Missing You” from the underrated (right?) epic Bang 3. “Tats” (like “Ain’t Missing You”) is dedicated to his deceased cousin Blood Money. It’s a slow-jam contemplation, daydreaming of peace in a cloudy bed of synths. The ink dried in his skin. Sosa sings “I win” like it was inevitable, a low-key celebration till the song briefly dissolves into a ghostly invocation of all he lost getting that win. It’s a beautiful, bittersweet, and piercing look, and Chief Keef’s first great song of 2016.