Everyone's who's somebody in Chicago has got something to say about Chief Keef, the 17-year-old firestarter who signed with Interscope Records earlier this year. And he's talking right back.

Last week, Lupe Fiasco said that Chief Keef "scares" him because of his violent music, "the culture he represents" and its seemingly close correlation to Chicago's rising murder rate. This week, that comment has erupted into a full-scale Twitter beef.
Yesterday, Sept. 5, Keef responded to Lupe's comments (in a way that seemed to verify the latter's concerns): "Lupe fiasco a h-- a-- n---a And wen I see him I'ma smack him like da lil b---h he is."

Lupe replied quickly, seeking to defuse the matter with tweets of his own. "I cant go 4 that @ChiefKeef & i cant let the people i love, including you my n---a, go 4 that either. We kings not f--king savages and goons," he wrote. "i love u lil bruh @ChiefKeef...i really really do from the bottom of my f--king heart. I know that street s--t like the back of my hand."

Lupe eventually deleted the tweets — but not before Keef retweeted them to his more than 200,000 followers. Keef later tweeted that his account had been hacked, though he didn't disavow the violent threat to Lupe, nor did he delete it.

Regardless, the dust-up seems to have affected Lupe (who's, let's face it, known to be a bit sensitive). Late last night, the rapper wrote a series of tweets that appeared to address the Keef beef. "My father i have spoken the truth to them yet it has only made my life in this world more troubled. i can bear this no longer," he wrote. "i have spoken peace only 2 receive vitriol and malice in return. My brother seeks destruction, my sister seeks attention, paths to nothingness....i'd die for them...but they'd probably spit on my grave...i still will die for them...just bury me in a place far from their reach."

He then wrote he would probably retire after his upcoming album, Food & Liquor 2: The Great American Rap Album. "This album will probably be my last...its been a pleasure to have all my fans provide so much love an inspiration for me and my family," he wrote. "But my heart is broken and i see no comfort further along this path only more pain. I cannot participate any longer in this. My first true love was literature so i will return to that...lupe fiasco ends here." (Though this isn't the first time Lupe's threatened to leave the rap game.)

It all started last week, when Lupe spoke about Chief Keef at Baltimore's 92Q radio station. "Chief Keef scares me. Not him specifically, but just the culture that he represents," Lupe said. "Specifically in Chicago. And I don’t speak this about any other city because I’m not from there. But, like, my family lives in Chicago. So my nephews, my cousins, my friends and my peoples, they all in those hoods that he represents ... The murder rate in Chicago is skyrocketing and you see who’s doing it and perpetrating it, they all look like Chief Keef. I understand where he came from, and I understand his struggle and I'm not [mad] at him, I'm [mad] at the place that he came from and that places like that still exist and incubate that mentality ... When you’re at high schools speaking to students, telling 'em how to survive the summer, and you turn on the radio and you hear that? You like, 'Aw nah.'"
This past June, another Chi-Town vet, Rhymefest, also addressed Keef's hard-edged music — but in much more stark terms. "He represents the senseless savagery that white people see when the news speaks of Chicago violence," Fest wrote in a blog post.
Unfortunately, all this rap beef is meaningless next to Chicago's real problems — namely, a murder rate that's soared 30 percent since last year.
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(Photos from left: Jason Merritt/Getty Images, Glory Boy Entertainment)