CHICAGO — The rapper Chief Keef isn’t giving up on his quest to perform via hologram.
Keef is a 19-year-old rapper with a huge fan base and long history of trouble with the law that is keeping him out of Chicago. He is now preparing to hold a show using hologram technology in which he is said to appear simultaneously in Los Angeles, New York and his hometown of Chicago, according to Owen Phillips, a spokesman with Hologram USA, the company that’s partnered with Keef to put on the shows.
But shortly after the announcement, Hologram USA owner Alki David released a statement saying Madison Square Garden in New York had backed out of their “verbal agreement.”
“Apparently since doing their research, the Madison Square Gardens people have bought into [Chicago Mayor] Rahm Emanuel’s disturbing disregard for the 1st amendment rights. Personally I feel disappointed but not surprised. Regardless the show will go on,” David said in a statement.
Thursday’s announcement comes after Keef was thwarted in recent weeks by city officials in Chicago and Hammond, Ind. from performing in those cities by hologram.
Phillips said that Keef will appear with an all-star hip hop lineup that was recruited by Keef and Grammy-award winning producer Detail. No date was set for the show, but Phillips said in an email that one of the venues used for the tri-city event will be the historic Chicago Theater.
Emanuel foiled the rapper’s plan to play from a soundstage in Beverly Hills but appear at a Chicago’s Redmoon Theater by hologram when he persuaded the venue to cancel Keef’s show earlier this month.
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Emanuel’s office raised concerns that Keef, who didn’t want to appear in person because of outstanding arrests warrants, was “an unacceptable role model” who promotes violence and that the concert “posed a significant public safety risk.”
Keef rose from relative obscurity to signing a reported $6 million deal with Interscope Records in 2012. He’s also drawn plenty of unwanted attention over the years.
His rap sheet includes a 2011 charge of dealing heroin, a 2012 sentence to home confinement for aggravated assault of a police officer with a firearm and a 60-day juvenile jail sentence in 2013 for firing a gun at New York gun range, a violation of his parole. (Video of the firing range incident was used to promote his music.)
Keef’s attempt to perform via hologram during a hip hop festival on Saturday in nearby Hammond, Ind. was nixed when police literally pulled the plug on him minutes into his performance.
Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said the rapper, whose real name is Keith Cozart, was not authorized to play at the festival on city property and promoters were warned that if he did, the performance would be stopped.
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Keef, who grew up on Chicago’s South Side but now lives in California, announced his plan to perform by hologram in Chicago for a benefit for the families of two victims of violence in the city. Keef, who was already under the contract with Hologram USA at the time of the first announcement, said he couldn’t perform in person because of an outstanding warrant for child support.
David dismissed both mayors as “fascists” and vowed to put the shows on.
