By KIM JANSSEN Â AND MARK KONKOL Staff Reporters September 6, 2012 9:11PM
Chief Keef at Pitchfork 2012. Photo credit: Andrea Bauer
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Updated: September 6, 2012 9:59PM
Two days after he took to Twitter to mock the murder of a rival teenage gangster rapper, Chief Keef Thursday faced a massive backlash of online outrage.
Thousands of commenters â" many sickened by the gang culture helping to drive Chicagoâs spike in shootings and murders â" used Twitter and Facebook to spell out their disgust at the violent culture Keefâs raps represent.
The backlash came in a flurry â" a Tweet every five seconds for most of Thursday.
âIâm deleting Chief Keef from my iTunes & will never support his career,â Tweeted @AwedByClaud. âYou donât laugh at someoneâs deth! You look guilty as hell dumbass!â
Other Tweeters called for Interscope Records, the label of rappers Dr. Dre, 50 Cent and Eminem, to drop Chief Keef from its lineup of artists.
Interscope bosses are waiting to see if police determine Chief Keef sent the offending Tweet, or if he was involved in the gang conflict leading to the murder before deciding the rapperâs future, a source close to the label told the Chicago Sun-Times.
âIf the reported behavior is accurate, that is not something the label will tolerate and they will take appropriate action,â the source said. âThere are a lot of unanswered questions.â
Chicago-based music website Pitchfork.com didnât wait to take action. Its editor apologized for a video interview with Chief Keef conducted in a gun range and removed it from the website.
âTrivializing gun violenceâ
âPitchforkâs roots are in Chicago and many of our employees and several contributors live in the city. The horror of the gun violence that has plagued our hometown is something we all take very seriously,â Pitchfork Editor in Chief Mark Richardson said in a statement. âMany people have pointed out that this episode could be seen as trivializing gun violence, and we feel they have a good point.â
The manager for Chief Keef â" whose real name is Keith Cozart, 17 â" didnât return calls seeking comment.
The Twitter controversy that now threatens Chief Keefâs rap career â" and again places Chicagoâs spike in shootings in the national spotlight â" began just hours after the murder of Joseph âLil JoJoâ Coleman, a South Side rap rival.
Coleman was shot dead Tuesday night near 69th and Princeton, about a block from where Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson grew up and where her family was slain in 2008.
Soon after Coleman died, Chief Keefâs Twitter account carried a message saying, âIts Sad Cuz Dat N----- Jojo Wanted to Be Jus Like Us #LMAO.â LMAO stands for âlaughing my ass off.â
While Chief Keef took a beating online Thursday, Chicago police continued to investigate possible connections between social media posts by a group of feuding gangster rappers, an ongoing Englewood gang conflict and Colemanâs murder.
Tweeted his location
One of Colemanâs own Tweets might have helped his killers track his whereabouts. The rapper, who grew up nearby, Tweeted his location just hours before he was shot dead.
âIm on #069 Im Out Here,â he Tweeted, then gave a cellphone number to another Twitter user who expressed doubts that Coleman had traveled to Englewood from his home in Altgeld Gardens.
He was riding on the back of a palâs bike around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday when a gunman fired six or seven shots, fatally striking him in the back.
With rumors of a bounty on Colemanâs head circulating on the street, it seemed the inevitable outcome of an escalating war of words and teenage bravado, witnesses and family said.
Coleman had been taunting rap associates of Chief Keefâs â" Lil Durk and Lil Reese â" for months in Youtube âdissâ raps and videos that also targeted the Black Disciples street gang.
Police sources say theyâve been monitoring an ongoing feud between the Lamron faction of the Black Disciples and Brick Squad faction of the Gangster Disciples for months.
Many of Chief Keefâs Tweets include a hashtag notation â#300â â" a known reference to the Black Disciples, and police are looking into his possible ties to the gang.
The rapper spent time under house arrest at his grandmotherâs home after he allegedly pointed a gun at a police officer in the Gresham District late last year, police said.
Coleman, too, was arrested last year on a gun charge â" one he was due to stand trial for in just two weeks. He allegedly dropped a .45 caliber handgun from the belt of his baggy pants while running away from a police raid of a party attended by members of the Gangster Disciples, court records show.
Police on the street Thursday night were still looking for Colemanâs killer.
Englewood District officers also were using information from a gang audit database â" part of police Supt. Garry McCarthyâs data-based violence reduction strategy â" to identify known criminals and their associates connected to the shooting in attempt to prevent retaliatory shootings.
No one was in custody late Thursday.
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