An influential figure in the 2010s drill scene, rapper Chief Keef pulls inspiration from the Chicago streets, delivering hardcore rhymes that often focus on inner-city tales of violence and drugs. Kicking his career off at the age of 16 with the street single "I Don't Like," he was popular on Chicago's high school circuit before mixtapes and viral videos led to a contract with Interscope. His official debut, 2012's Finally Rich, was a hit, peaking in the Top 30 of the Billboard 200. Following a pair of 2015 albums, a prolific Keef issued a string of mixtapes -- five per year in 2017 and 2018 -- including Two Zero One Seven, Thot Breaker, and Mansion Musick. Over the next several years, he focused on a recurring series called The GloFiles, which released its fourth volume in 2020, after which he issued the album 4NEM (2021) and Dirty Nachos (2024), a mixtape collaboration with Mike Will Made-It.

Born Keith Cozart in Chicago, Keef first hit with 2011's "Bang," a slow-rolling, simple cut that was an instant hit with the youth of his hometown's South Side. The mixtapes The Glory Road and Bang were both released that year by Keef's label, Glory Boyz, but at the end of 2011, the rapper was arrested for unlawful use of a weapon, having pointed a gun at a police officer. In early 2012, Keef was finishing his sentence of house arrest at his grandmother's home as his track "I Don't Like" was topping a million views on video-sharing sites. It caught the attention of Kanye West, who completed a remix of the track with Big Sean, Pusha T, and Jadakiss all added to the mix. The single landed on Finally Rich, Keef's debut album released late in 2012 by Interscope. 50 Cent, Young Jeezy, and Rick Ross made guest appearances, while production came from the likes of Young Chop and Mike Will Made-It. Late that same year, as the Chicago Police announced the MC was being investigated in connection to a shooting death, a video of Keef at a gun range triggered a parole violation investigation that ended in 2013 with a two-month sentence in a juvenile detention facility.

Interscope dropped the artist a year later, and in early 2015, while the rapper was under house arrest due to more parole violations, a planned concert with Keef beamed in as a hologram was canceled when the venue was pressured by Chicago's City Hall. It didn't stop the release of music, as the MC issued four mixtapes, as well as a pair of LPs -- Bang 3 and Nobody 2 -- at the close of 2015. In 2017, on New Year's Day, he released Two Zero One Seven, followed that summer by his fifth official full-length, Thot Breaker. Later that year, he issued Dedication, which included features from Lil Yachty, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, and Tadoe, along with production from D. Rich, StuntMan, Turbo, CBMix, and K.E. on the Track.

In 2018, Keef repeated the prior year's prolific streak with a dizzying slew of mixtape releases, including two installations of The Leek series and the first two parts of The GloFiles. He issued Mansion Musick in July, featuring Playboi Carti on "Uh Uh" and Tadoe on "Sky Say," before closing the year with The Cozart and Back from the Dead 3. The following year, the seventh and eighth volumes of The Leek arrived just before his high-profile collaboration with trap producer Zaytoven, GloToven, which featured just one guest, Lil Pump.

With barely a pause in his output, Keef picked his GloFiles series back up, issuing the third volume in late 2019 and the fourth in 2020. "Bang Bang," a collaboration with Mike WiLL Made-It, appeared later that year, followed in 2021 by singles like "The Talk" and "New Bugatti," the latter of which featured Ski Mask the Slump God and DJ Scheme. The album 4NEM appeared at the end of the year. Several singles, including "Tony Montana Flow" (with Akachi) and "Almighty Gnar" (with Lil Gnar), were released in 2022. In 2024, Keef again paired with Mike WiLL Made-It for the mixtape Dirty Nachos, which featured the track "PULL UP GHOST-CLAN" featuring 2 Chainz. ~ David Jeffries

Since the early 2010s, producer Mike WiLL Made-It has been a leading force in Atlanta's commercial rap supremacy. He began working with Gucci Mane as a teenager and rode that momentum to establish and sustain mainstream presence with lean, sleek, and imposing productions for an assortment of high-profile artists spanning hip-hop, R&B, and pop. Since topping Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart for the first time with the Kanye West-led "Mercy" (2012), not a year has passed without a major hit from the producer. Among his post-breakthrough highlights are Top Ten pop entries with Lil Wayne's "Love Me" (2013), Miley Cyrus' "We Can't Stop" (2013), and Beyoncé's "Formation" (2016), and number one hits with Rae Sremmurd's "Black Beatles" (2016) and Kendrick Lamar's "HUMBLE." (2017), the last of which won a Grammy for Record of the Year. Mike WiLL has also released an assortment of collaborative headlining projects, including the proper full-length Ransom 2 (2017) and Creed II: The Album (2018), both of which were issued through his Interscope-supported Eardruma label. As early as 2020, he began releasing songs that would appear on his sophomore studio album Michael, slated for release in 2023.

Michael Len Williams II grew up surrounded by music in his native Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta. His mother Shirley has performed and recorded with Dottie Peoples, his father DJ'ed in clubs, and one of his sisters was a drum major. Williams himself was into playing keyboards, programming drums, and production by his early teenage years. While in high school, he started supplying tracks for Gucci Mane, as heard on the 2007 mixtape No Pad No Pencil. After graduating, he attended Georgia State but put his studies on hold after he landed his first Billboard entry with Meek Mill and Rick Ross' "Tupac Back," a number 31 hit on the R&B/hip-hop chart in 2011. Williams rose to mainstream prominence the next year with a string of hits characterized by lean, sleek, and imposing beats. Future's "Turn on the Lights," Kanye West's "Mercy," 2 Chainz' "No Lie," and Juicy J's "Bandz a Make Her Dance" either topped or nearly topped the R&B/hip-hop chart, with the latter three also crossing into the pop Top 40.

Accolades multiplied in 2013, a year that also entailed stylistic diversification into full-blown pop. Six singles bearing the Mike WiLL Made-It stamp reached the Top Ten of the R&B/hip-hop and/or pop chart: Rihanna's "Pour It Up," Lil Wayne's "Love Me," Ace Hood's "Bugatti," Ciara's "Body Party," and Miley Cyrus' "We Can't Stop," as well as the producer's first hit as a headliner, "23," featuring Cyrus. "23" was Williams' debut for Interscope, where he soon established the boutique Eardruma label for developing rappers and fellow producers. Most of Williams' production success in 2014 was tied to the label's first big act, exuberant sibling duo Rae Sremmurd, whose "No Flex Zone!," "No Type," and "Throw Sum Mo" were Top 40 hits across the year. Shortly after Williams helped take Beyoncé's "Formation" to the Top Ten in early 2016, he and Rae Sremmurd reached a peak with "Black Beatles," a number one pop hit. "Formation" was later nominated for Grammy Awards in the categories of Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

With several mixtapes behind him, Williams finally released his first proper solo album, Ransom 2, in March 2017. Packed with at least one star artist on most of the tracks, the set entered the Billboard 200 at number 24 but was instantly outdistanced within weeks by a Williams-related LP by one of its guests, Kendrick Lamar's DAMN. Williams either produced or co-produced three tracks from that album, including "HUMBLE.," his second number one hit, and "DNA.," another Top Ten single. The former became Williams' 16th production to go either gold or platinum, and made him a Grammy winner when it took the award for Record of the Year. All the while, Williams continued to devote time to Eardruma as a label head and producer with Edgewood, an album co-billed to Mike WiLL Made-It and rapper Trouble. The March 2018 release was followed eight months later by the Top 50 companion to the Creed II soundtrack, Creed II: The Album. Williams was directly involved with almost every track, joined by the likes of Gucci Mane, Rae Sremmurd, and Kendrick Lamar, as well as 2 Chainz, ScHoolboy Q, and Bon Iver. The song "What That Speed Bout!?," featuring Nicki Minaj and YoungBoy Never Broke Again, arrived in November 2020. This track would be the first song shared that was planned for inclusion on Williams' second studio album. Over the next few years, in addition to appearing on songs with Chief Keef and Gucci Mane, Williams shared a new track, "Blood Moon," in August of 2023. The song featured Lil Uzi Vert and was co-produced by J. Cole, and gave a sneak preview of Mike WiLL Made-It's second studio album Michael, which was slated for release sometime in 2023. ~ Andy Kellman