Lyrical Lemonade’s Cole Bennett Will Direct New Chief Keef Documentary

Chief Keef is a Chicago legend, and a hip hop legend. He pioneered a sound that’s still being used and expanded upon today. Keef’s legacy has also been defined by his legal troubles, and the various beefs he’s had with other artists. Both of these aspects will serve as the basis for the upcoming documentary about his life. Variety confirmed that a Chief Keef documentary is in the works, and Lyrical Lemonade’s Cole Bennett will serve as the director. It will mark Bennett’s feature directorial debut.

The documentary has yet to receive a proper title. That said, Variety provided some crucial details about the film and what fans can expect. It will chronicle Chief Keef’s meteoric rise to fame in the late aughts. The influence that the rapper had on Chicago’s drill scene will be explored and his impact on music as a whole will be fleshed out. The doc will utilize the framework of Chief Keef’s recent return to Chicago. This is following a decade plus of being banned from performing in the city. Keef’s set at the Summer Smash Festival marked his first show in the Windy City since Lollapalooza in 2012.

The timing of the documentary makes perfect sense. Chief Keef reputation and career were in the wild for most of the 2010s. It was unclear if the rapper would ever get a chance to reclaim his spot as a music pioneer. Fortunately, the acclaim given to his recent releases, and his Summer Smash stint, have signaled a change. Chief Keef talked about said his outsized influence during a May interview with the Grammy Awards. “If I had 500 M’s every time [I heard that], I’d be Jeff Bezos,” he quipped. “I be hearing that a lot, though, man… We know. I used to get mad about it, but I don’t give a f*ck.”

The documentary will also provide a major turning point for Cole Bennett. The Lyrical Lemonade creative has been one of the most in-demand music video directors of the last decade. He’s thrilled to be making the transition to narrative films, however. He retweeted the Variety article announcing the documentary, and wrote: “My first film, Chief Keef documentary.” A release date has yet to be announced. The untitled doc will be produced by Kenya Barris, as well as Lyrical Lemonade’s Jake Millan and Krista Worby.