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\n\tThe 17-year-old rap sensation has become one of 2025\u2019s buzziest new rappers, in thanks part to an explosive performance at his hometown\u2019s Summer Smash festival, and a debut on the Billboard Hot 100 in July. The rambunctious aura of \u201cWent West\u201d locked in especially hard with the kids, who raged all summer long to the song across Chicago and beyond. The track was the latest in a string of successful singles for Chief, whose 2024 debut project Animals Only <\/em>included the viral hits \u201cThe Viper,\u201d \u201cNachos\u201d and more.<\/p>\n\n\tBabyChiefDoIt\u2019s momentum hasn\u2019t waned since dropping off his first hit \u201cPancakes & Drugs\u201d last July \u2014 but if you ask the teen rapper himself, his career has fluctuated on and off like a leaky faucet. A ban from Instagram almost derailed him early on, and he constantly laments Zoo Life<\/em>, which dropped earlier this year, as being one of his worst projects. He\u2019s toyed with the idea of hanging up his mic entirely since breaking out, but there\u2019s always been something that\u2019s brought him back.<\/p>\n\n\tThe likely truth about his recent success is that the music is just really, really good. BabyChief\u2019s take on Chicago drill is stuffed to the gills with playfulness \u2014 On \u201cThe Viper\u201d he raps, \u201cThis beat make me wanna smack a ho\/ Where my money at, b\u2014h?\u201d \u2014 but never becomes satirical because of how well it\u2019s made. He pays homage to all the drill greats, all while carving out just enough space for his own personality to shine through. Songs like \u201cWent West,\u201d which he produced as well, are an indicator of just how unique the teen is \u2014\u00a0but he admits that a it\u2019s taken a while for him to find his footing, because of how manipulative the industry can be with kids.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFor sure,\u201d BabyChief says when asked if industry folk try to test him, adding extra emphases on the latter word. \u201cOften. But me and Fred [Jay], we got super powers bro. We not like regular people. We see everything 10 steps ahead of ya, two steps to the right and four steps to the left. But I get it now, so I\u2019m gonna get it more later. I\u2019m gonna be here for a minute, so it\u2019s best I get it as early as I can.\u201d (As BabyChiefDoIt sits in the Billboard<\/em> offices, he gestures to his manager Fred, who stands up, flexes his muscles and daps up his beloved client.) <\/p>\n\n\tBelow, Billboard<\/em>\u2018s September Hip-Hop Rookie of the Month talks about \u201cWent West,\u201d his tough road to stardom, and how he\u2019s closing out the year more focused than ever.<\/p>\n\n\tThis past year has been a whirlwind for you. How have you been doing managing everything?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI\u2019ve been doing good. I\u2019ve been up, I\u2019ve been down, that\u2019s what come with it. So I\u2019ve just been taking it all in day by day. <\/p>\n
\n\tWhat was your experience like growing up in Chicago, and at what point did you start to fall in love with hip-hop?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI had always been exposed to every which way of music. In my household it was mostly R&B and like old rap like Biggie, 8Ball & MJG, all those people. In 2019-2020 is when I first started playing around with it, in quarantine. It became an after-school activity. I was already thinking about it, but with quarantine I didn\u2019t have nothing better to do, and that was the only thing there was to do, you feel me? To stay in the house, either watch TV or record music.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen did people start noticing your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tLocally, everybody already knew I rapped because I always put it out on Instagram. I usually post like teasers and reels and stuff, and it started picking up steam when I dropped a snippet to \u201cRollin’\u201d in December of 2022, and it started picking up in March of 2023. I just put it out, \u2019cause I was getting praise locally and it went all through the city.<\/p>\n
\n\tThat must have been crazy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tYeah, I felt bigger than I was for sure. I probably didn\u2019t put the song out till July, but towards the end of the month, my Instagram got banned cause I was posting stuff I wasn\u2019t supposed to be posting. They banned my account for six months, so I ain\u2019t have no way to access my fanbase. I ain\u2019t drop another song until I got my page back in December, and I felt like I lost everything. In a way I did! I didn\u2019t really wanna rap no more. That whole six months I wasn\u2019t makin\u2019 no music.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat were you doing instead?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tUsual dumb stuff.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen you got your Instagram back were you reenergized?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tYeah, then I put out my second song and it ain\u2019t do nothing at all. So I was a little frustrated so I stopped again and then my mama bought me some studio equipment and I hadn\u2019t used it. Then Chuckyy got signed to Alamo and OTF, I was a little frustrated at that too, but he talked about me and motivated me. Everyone around me felt that I deserved to be at that place too, I just didn\u2019t put forth the effort.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat about Chuckyy\u2019s comments motivated you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tHe was treatin\u2019 me, I ain\u2019t gonna lie. Callin\u2019 me a weak-ass rapper. And I was just trying to figure out why we ain\u2019t up there. The real actual motivation wasn\u2019t when they bashing me. The motivational part was when my mama came downstairs \u2014 cause the basement is my kick-it spot \u2014 and I was tellin\u2019 her about it. About how everybody else made it and I didn\u2019t, and she was like, \u201cDon\u2019t beat yourself up about it. You just got work to do.\u201d That\u2019s when I started using that studio equipment, recording myself on the computer with a real microphone.<\/p>\n
\n\tYou\u2019ve talked a lot about how you hate being online, but you\u2019re very savvy with Instagram and TikTok. How have you navigated having to utilize an online persona in order to help your music grow?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI don\u2019t necessarily like the internet, because it be a lot of stupid and ignorant stuff on the internet. It be stuff that\u2019s said or done without thought, which I understand a lot of people just don\u2019t know no better. So that was really the only problem I\u2019ve ever had with the internet is just people being on there talking. But I understand it now, you feel me?<\/p>\n
\n\tYou seem intentional about carrying the torch of old-school drill music. What is your connection to the Chief Keef and Lil Durks of the Chicago scene, and how important is it for you to pay homage to carry the torch in your music?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI don\u2019t [have one], and it\u2019s not intentional. I wouldn\u2019t call myself \u201ctrying to carry they torch,\u201d you feel me? I like their sound and they have a sound that\u2019s not coming no more. That\u2019s just what I grew up hearing, and that\u2019s just the music I like making. As far as how I feel towards Durk and Chief Keef, of course I grew up listening to them, but I grew up really clinging to the local drill rappers who didn\u2019t make it to see it big. For a long time I didn\u2019t listen to mainstream artists. Like Keef and Lil Durk, after a while they was considered to be people you hear on the radio. Once your songs become so commercialized, they start to lose the street feel to it, as far as somebody that\u2019s in the streets listening to it.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat are your thoughts on today\u2019s drill movement?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI think drill is temporary. Honestly, I do feel like drill is temporary. I think drill is a base for music, it\u2019s where you start, but you can\u2019t stay drill forever.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhy not?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tCause it get old! You gotta expand just as a human, period. I don\u2019t think it lasts. With Durk, even though Durk made the same kind of music, as he expanded in life and started to venture off into the world the music became different. <\/p>\n
\n\tYou\u2019ve mentioned a few times you don\u2019t like growing up, and hearing your music be so rambunctious I can\u2019t help but feel like this is a way to capture being young. Do you think your sound will change as you get older?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tYeah, 100%. I feel like in the slightest way I\u2019ve already changed. \u2018Cause now it\u2019s more than just making songs. Now I\u2019m making songs with intention, with meaning, with emotion. The older I get the more my music will change.<\/p>\n
\n\tI hear that intention on Zoo Life<\/em>. When you approached that album what was the emotion driving that project?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tStress. After [I dropped] \u201cNachos,\u201d that November and December, that was rough months for me. That was when the whole music industry was closing down around that time. So I took that as a vacation, I wasn\u2019t really on it how I should\u2019ve been. I got caught up in a lot of stuff that go on in my city. So I just got distracted and it took me off my path, and it took me a long time to recover from all that stuff mentally. <\/p>\n
\n\tIn regards to what?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tJust from doing more goofy s\u2014t that wasn\u2019t necessary. So Zoo Life<\/em> was me coming out of that state. Just me being stressed and me being worried, because when I was going to the studio during that time, the music I was making, I wasn\u2019t feeling it for real. It just felt like everything was going down hill. Then my [streaming] numbers started dropping, and of course that\u2019s normal, I know that now. <\/p>\n\n\tBut yeah, it just felt like everything was going downhill. So I don\u2019t really speak on the Zoo Life <\/em>project for real, because of just the state of mind I was in. It wasn\u2019t the best music. For somebody else that probably is the best songs they ever heard by me! But me feeling how I feel towards my music, it just wasn\u2019t my all. I don\u2019t even touch that project.<\/p>\n\n\tTell me about \u201cWent West.\u201d How did it feel producing and rapping on your own song? How did it feel to have the song debut on the Billboard Hot 100?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIt was surprisingly easy. Easier than I expected. I always wanted to step into it, because beat selection is something that I struggle with \u2014 because it\u2019s a certain sound that I cling to that\u2019s not comin\u2019 no more, like I said. That\u2019s why I use so many samples and instrumentals, because it\u2019s only a certain time and era that got those. My manager Fred had an engineer at the studio I was recording at, and he brought his producing equipment just to give me a little rundown of what was going on. So before I got to the studio, the engineer had made a remake to a 2 Chainz beat. I came in and I ain\u2019t gonna lie, I wasn\u2019t feelin\u2019 it. I wasn\u2019t tryin\u2019 to sit there and learn. I wanted to rap. <\/p>\n
\n\tSo I\u2019m sittin\u2019 there lettin\u2019 him talk and do what he do and he gave me this little beat pad, and told me to just play around with it. So I tapped it a few times, and I end up hearing stuff that I liked, little patterns. So long story short, I flipped the whole beat into somethin\u2019 else, which ended up being \u201cWent West.\u201d After I hit Billboard<\/em>, producing became my secondary career. I got about five placements on my [new] album.<\/p>\n\n\tIt sounds like \u201cWent West\u201d changed everything for you.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tIt redeemed my confidence, because I thought it was over with, I ain\u2019t gonna lie. Before that, with the whole Zoo Life<\/em> project, I thought I was done for \u2014 and I was ready to be done for. I was slowly accepting the fact that maybe I wasn\u2019t meant to be here, to be in the game for this long. Cause a lot of people have had a little buzz and then poof! So I was accepting the fact that it was over with.<\/p>\n\n\tYeah, how are you gonna keep the momentum goin\u2019 with this new album?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tOk, just to let you know, \u201cWent West\u201d was recorded with my album. That was for the album \u2014 once I put it out there and it picked up so much wind, I just had to [go with it], but that was originally for the album. During my Summer Smash performance the DJ said, \u201cY\u2019all wanna hear somethin\u2019 off the album?\u201d But yeah, I\u2019m doing it big, I\u2019m doing it great. This is it. It ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 like Zoo Life<\/em>, it ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 like Animal Zone<\/em>. This is gonna be bigger and better. It\u2019s comin\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\tWhat are some of the challenges you\u2019ve faced in regards to trying to stay on the right path this time around?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tI\u2019m keeping people around me that\u2019s gonna hold me accountable, and I pray a lot. That\u2019s really it, that\u2019s as good as it gets. I got solid people around me that have been with me through everything, and I\u2019m see through with those people. They know everything, they see everything, they see me for me. I mean, what makes it easier is you realize you\u2019re not perfect and you can\u2019t be perfect. That you make mistakes and that other people make mistakes. Forgiveness is it.<\/p>\n
\n\tHave you thought about what the future holds for BabyChiefDoIt now that you\u2019re at this exciting point?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\tNah, it\u2019s just gonna get bigger and better.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.billboard.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the debate over whether there was a song of the summer continues to rage into the fall, it\u2019s weird more people aren\u2019t talking about BabyChiefDoIt\u2018s \u201cWent West.\u201d Explore See latest videos, charts and news The 17-year-old rap sensation has become one of 2025\u2019s buzziest new rappers, in thanks part to an explosive performance at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2010122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[309524],"class_list":["post-2024394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-genre-hiphop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Melanie-Santiler-Cimafunks-Ese-Besito-Voted-Best-New-Latin-Music.gif","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2024394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2024394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2010122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2024394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2024394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2024394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}