

Chicago has all the institutionalized racism, crime, projects, and drug problems LA and NYC have, yet the music produced has been slightly more "conscious" than on either cost. Lupe Fiasco, Common, and Kanye West are the hip hop acts most associated with Chicago. It would be hard to argue that Chief Keef isn't "conscious" of the grim reality of life in The Second City for a disturbingly large percentage of the population.

He's been called a spokesman for the "skyrocketing murder rate in Chicago." True. He glorifies what many of us find repulsive, but it's hard to argue that years of rappers like Common letting us know how bad the drug and gang wars have gotten through clever detachment has changed much. As the NRA well knows, sometimes the best spokesman is silence, and we've all been too silent about the violence in Chicago.