Happy Birthday, Chief Keef! Sosa is now 23.

Despite being in label limbo, Chief Keef remains one of the most relevant Chicago artists of the past couple years. Chief Keef released his debut album, Finally Richin December of 2012 to mostly positive reviews if lukewarm sales. Meanwhile, he's worked with a gaggle of hip-hop's elite including Kanye West, 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa, French Montana, Gucci Mane and Soulja Boy.

Keef has also been a lightning rod of controversy, not only for the nihilistic bent of his music but his frequent troubles with the law. He's often been unfortunately labeled as "the poster boy" for the rising murder rate in Chicago as his music and attitude makes him an easy target for social critics.

In late 2014, Chief Keef and Interscope went their separate ways. A flood of mixtapes followed before Keef signed with media magnate Alki David's FilmOn TV, but after releasing Bang 3 in 2015, Keef was suspended from the label due to problems between management and David.

XXL spoke to Sosa in May 2017 to get the inside story about his fall from grace and plan for his comeback. A couple months later, in August, XXL learned that Apple Music is producing a documentary on Chief Keef called The Story of Sosa: The Movie. In an effort to celebrate the five-year anniversary of his debut album, Finally Rich, Apple Music had planned to drop the film in December 2017. It has yet to be released.

Living up to a statement he made about letting his music do the talking, Keef continued dropping off dope new music throughout 2017. In December of that particular year, the rapper unloaded his Dedication album. Last month, he dropped off yet another project, unleashing his Mansion Musick project. A few weeks later it was revealed that Keef would be performing two shows as a Hologram in London.

Happy Birthday to Sosa!

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