Everyone knows Chicago rap had a massive 2012. A new generation of "drill" music stars-to-be took the industry by storm over the past few 12 months, with King L, Chief Keef, Lil Reese and Lil Durk all signing major deals. But in the end, the city's biggest breakthrough rap talent may not be a rapper at all. Meet 18-year-old producer Young Chop, who crafted one of the year's biggest hits, defined the city's new sound, landed a big publishing deal with Warner Bros., and collaborated with an all-star roster—all without suffering any of the negative publicity that seemed to haunt his hometown comrades. Chop not only produced "I Don't Like," the song that put Chi on the map this year, but he also oversaw the rest of Keef's debut album, Finally Rich, which dropped last Tuesday, Dec. 18, producing seven of the 12 tracks. He's working with Durk, Reese and other local talents including Sasha Go Hard, quickly becoming the main man behind the city's frenetic "drill" sound.

Thanks to the deafening buzz his work with Keef created, he's expanded his circle of collaborators far outside of the Chi, working with Birdman and producing several tracks for French Montana's recent Mac and Cheese 3 mixtape. Chop even had former foes reaching out: He and Pusha T exchanged words earlier this year after the young producer expressed his displeasure with the GOOD Music remix of "I Don't Like," but that didn't stop them from collaborating on "Blocka," the latest leak from Pusha's Wrath of Cain mixtape, a few months later. Call it the power of a dope beat. Here, Young Chop sits down with XXL to break down his work on Finally Rich, his reconciliation with Pusha and making eight beats a day. —Alex Gale (@apexdujeous)

On the direction of Keef's Finally Rich:

The vibe changed a little bit but we came back to ourselves. I was trying to make it a little different to what we previously did, and we did that. It's similar but it's really not. It's more of a party feel, more than those gutter, hard hood bangers like "3 Hunna." I just tried to make it all that window, make them happier and make them hard, and put it all on one album. We didn't wanna sound too hood and then some kids wouldn't like it. Keef's 17—he's gotta have fun too.


On Keef's "Love Sosa":

I was in the studio, it was me, French Montana and Keef. I was making a beat and I wasn't intending to make it sound like that. It was gonna be all dark, hard and crazy, but it just switched into that little bounce, that little melody. That’s a totally different track for Keef. When it popped off, I thought they were gonna look at like, "Oh, he's singing, he's got Autotune." But people liked it.


On Keef's "Hallelujah":

We were making stuff just to be making it. That song just popped up. I made the beat in like 15 minutes, I swear. There's not that many sounds on it, it's just groovy. Keef went crazy. He sat in the studio on the mixing board, and he was just writing, writing, writing, and then he went in the booth and just spit the chorus. Right away I was like, "Damn, that's definitely gonna be on the album."

NEXT: YOUNG CHOP ON "I DON'T LIKE," WORKING WITH FRENCH MONTANA AND MORE


On Keef's "I Don’t Like":

"We were in the loft where we recorded the whole back from the dead mixtape. We had a little spot in Chicago that we all went to. Its Keef's manager's cousin's crib. The beat, if you notice, really doesn’t have that many sounds. It sounds full but it isn’t. It was quick and easy. He wrote the hook from being on Twitter. Saying what he didn't like on there. And it just matched. Lil Reese knew the song was going to be crazy. He was like, "Let's shoot the video," and we did it the next day. We were supposed to have a two-day shoot but we just did the one scene and that was it. It just took off by itself. It's crazy.


On Keef's "Hate Being Sober," featuring 50 Cent and Wiz Khalifa:

I was in my hotel room when 50 was in the studio, I came down to the studio and he was writing to it. Keef played the album for him and he picked that song to get on. We sent it to Wiz while he was on tour. He sent it back like the next day.


On Keef's "Diamonds," featuring French Montana:

That was like the first time I worked with French on a one on one level. The song it really was just a throw-out song but the lyrics were crazy so it had to go on the album. We did that in like a couple minutes. We recorded at the Interscope studio in L.A. I did a whole bunch of joints for French on [his mixtape] Mac and Cheese 3 too. I just did the intro for his album, and some other joints.


On Keef's "3Hunna," featuring Rick Ross:

That's the song that first got us our buzz, like, "Whoa." I had no part with Rick Ross getting on the song. The label did all that. It was a blessing though. Ross is cool. I'm going to do some work with him on an album or mixtape.


On Keef's "Finally Rich":

I was just in the studio playing around with the beat. Keef just went in and started going crazy, thanking all his fans. It's a different sound of beat for me. You normally won't hear me do beats like that. I'm trying to be versatile.

NEXT: CHOP ON SQUASHING BEEF WITH PUSHA T AND MORE

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On collaborating:

I don’t send beats to no artists. I gotta get in the studio with you. When they call me, I'm like "Na, I don't work like that." When I'm in the studio with you I can get to know what you want. I like to make something fresh on the spot for you.


On Pusha T's "Blocka"

I gave the beat to Travis Scott a minute ago in New York and then he put the hook down and then he gave it to Pusha. Then his people hit me up and were like "We're going to make this his single," and I'm like, Huh? I never heard the song." Then I met him in L.A., we were in the studio together and he started playing me the song and I'm like, "Dang, that's it." I'm working on his album too. He's a cool dude though. We didn't even have a conversation about our [past beef], we just started making music.

On his publishing deal:

I'm working, that's all I can say. When I signed that deal I knew I had to get on my grind. People think I gotta work with Keef all the time, but with my publishing deal I gotta work with everybody. I have commitments for the deal that I gotta get through as quick as possible. I got through the first term in like six months. We had a big meeting and they're like, "Man, you just knocked these out." I work quick. Like 20 15 minutes, 45 the most, on a beat. I can make like eight beats a day.

On 2013:

I'm gonna be working with any and every body. But I really want to build something new, start something new. At the top of the year I'm gonna start a whole label, get a distribution deal and just put out artists. I'm working on a new mixtape with my crew 8TMG. I'm looking at the bigger picture.

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