Review: Chief Keef - Back from the Dead 2
By Christopher Reinbold, Contributor
[Glo Gang / GBE; 2014]
Rating: 1.5/10
Key Tracks: “Blurry”
My knowledge of Chief Keef previously did not extend much past a brief backstory of who he was and a handful of songs; I had to do a little digging into his back-catalog to get familiar with him. Upon arriving at Back from the Dead 2, I was hoping Chief Keef would change-up his style of hip-hop to some degree and was disappointed.
Hailing from Chicago, Chief Keef dropped his newest mixtape, Back from the Dead 2, as a treat on Halloween. The 20-track compilation opens with “Feds,” which is crafted in true Chief Keef fashion: the bass is farty, the “snare” is a synthetic click and a vast majority of his lyrics are unintelligible upon the first listen.
Unfortunately, none of the sounds on the album get switched up. Chief Keef relies heavily on a formula comprised of overdone bass and fake snare as the root of each song on the album. Occasionally Chief Keef will throw in something to occupy the higher frequencies in his beats.
On “Whole Crowd,” Chief Keef doesn’t just employ this sandpaper “ear-candy,” he also slurs his words as if he’s strung-out. “Faneto” also makes use of a similarly molded beat and a hype track that sounds like he brought a rabid dog in to lay it down.
On “Paper,” featuring trap-master Gucci Mane, the Chief Keef-produced beat sounds like a mix between a young child playing on a toy bell kit and the “tick-tock” of a clock on speed. Again, Chief Keef is making primal use of the most insanity-producing sounds he can conjure.
In addition to these noises, Chief Keef’s lyrics have a tendency to be laughable. Two such examples manifest in “Cops” and “Faneto.” In the latter, Chief Keef manages to string together and shout the words, “Cheese in my pockets / Velveeta!”
In the context of the song, as with most of them, it sounds like he is either referring to the drugs he is slinging or the money he is getting. In “Cops,” we are bestowed with the gem that is, “This ain’t peanut butter / I can’t be up in these jams!” as he talks about being under stress due to some complicated issue.
Fortunately, Back from the Dead 2 isn’t just a whirlwind of bad lyrics and sounds that send your eardrums on a flume ride through a cheese grater. “Blurry” is a surprising song that offers a glimpse of inner city life by illustrating a drug dealer’s narrative. Not only do the lyrics mention weed, but also speak about what happens when dealings go awry and how serious the repercussions could be. Is it a well-crafted narrative? Not really, but it is one of the more insightful tracks on the album.
This mixtape does not stack up to his previous material. Chief Keef uses too many rehashed sounds and the production quality has decreased from his past releases, in part due to the self-production. After listening to Back from the Dead 2, all you can wonder is, “Who let this guy back from the dead…. again?”
