As the debate over whether there was a song of the summer continues to rage into the fall, it’s werid more people aren’t talking about BabyChiefDoIt‘s “Went West.”
The 17-year-old rap sensation has become one of 2025’s buzziest new rappers, in thanks part to an explosive performance at his hometown’s Summer Smash festival, and a debut on the Billboard Hot 100 in July. The rambunctious aura of “Went West” locked in especially hard with the kids, who raged all summer long to the song across Chicago and beyond. The track was the latest in a string of successful singles for Chief, whose 2024 debut project Animals Only included the viral hits “The Viper,” “Nachos” and more.
BabyChiefDoIt’s momentum hasn’t waned since dropping off his first hit “Pancakes & Drugs” last July — but if you ask the teen rapper himself, his career has fluctuated on and off like a leaky faucet. A ban from Instagram almost derailed him early on, and he constantly laments Zoo Life, which dropped earlier this year, as being one of his worst projects. He’s toyed with the idea of hanging up his mic entirely since breaking out, but there’s always been something that’s brought him back.
The likely truth about his recent success is that the music is just really, really good. BabyChief’s take on Chicago drill is stuffed to the gills with playfulness — On “The Viper” he raps, “This beat make me wanna smack a ho/ Where my money at, b—h?” — but never becomes satirical because of how well it’s made. He pays homage to all the drill greats, all while carving out just enough space for his own personality to shine through. Songs like “Went West,” which he produced as well, are an indicator of just how unique the teen is — but he admits that a it’s taken a while for him to find his footing, because of how manipulative the industry can be with kids.
“For sure,” BabyChief says when asked if industry folk try to test him, adding extra emphases on the latter word. “Often. But me and Fred [Jay], we got super powers bro. We not like regular people. We see everything 10 steps ahead of ya, two steps to the right and four steps to the left. But I get it now, so I’m gonna get it more later. I’m gonna be here for a minute, so it’s best I get it as early as I can.” (As BabyChiefDoIt sits in the Billboard offices, he gestures to his manager Fred, who stands up, flexes his muscles and daps up his beloved client.)
Below, Billboard‘s September Hip-Hop Rookie of the Month talks about “Went West,” his tough road to stardom, and how he’s closing out the year more focused than ever.
This past year has been a whirlwind for you. How have you been doing managing everything?
I’ve been doing good. I’ve been up, I’ve been down, that’s what come with it. So I’ve just been taking it all in day by day.
What was your experience like growing up in Chicago, and at what point did you start to fall in love with hip-hop?
I had always been exposed to every which way of music. In my household it was mostly R&B and like old rap like Biggie, 8Ball & MJG, all those people. In 2019-2020 is when I first started playing around with it, in quarantine. It became an after-school activity. I was already thinking about it, but with quarantine I didn’t have nothing better to do, and that was the only thing there was to do, you feel me? To stay in the house, either watch TV or record music.
When did people start noticing your music?
Locally, everybody already knew I rapped because I always put it out on Instagram. I usually post like teasers and reels and stuff, and it started picking up steam when I dropped a snippet to “Rollin’” in December of 2022, and it started picking up in March of 2023. I just put it out, ’cause I was getting praise locally and it went all through the city.
That must have been crazy.
Yeah, I felt bigger than I was for sure. I probably didn’t put the song out till July, but towards the end of the month, my Instagram got banned cause I was posting stuff I wasn’t supposed to be posting. They banned my account for six months, so I ain’t have no way to access my fanbase. I ain’t drop another song until I got my page back in December, and I felt like I lost everything. In a way I did! I didn’t really wanna rap no more. That whole six months I wasn’t makin’ no music.
What were you doing instead?
Usual dumb stuff.
When you got your Instagram back were you reenergized?
Yeah, then I put out my second song and it ain’t do nothing at all. So I was a little frustrated so I stopped again and then my mama bought me some studio equipment and I hadn’t used it. Then Chuckyy got signed to Alamo and OTF, I was a little frustrated at that too, but he talked about me and motivated me. Everyone around me felt that I deserved to be at that place too, I just didn’t put forth the effort.
What about Chuckyy’s comments motivated you?
He was treatin’ me, I ain’t gonna lie. Callin’ me a weak-ass rapper. And I was just trying to figure out why we ain’t up there. The real actual motivation wasn’t when they bashing me. The motivational part was when my mama came downstairs — cause the basement is my kick-it spot — and I was tellin’ her about it. About how everybody else made it and I didn’t, and she was like, “Don’t beat yourself up about it. You just got work to do.” That’s when I started using that studio equipment, recording myself on the computer with a real microphone.
You’ve talked a lot about how you hate being online, but you’re very savvy with Instagram and TikTok. How have you navigated having to utilize an online persona in order to help your music grow?
I don’t necessarily like the internet, because it be a lot of stupid and ignorant stuff on the internet. It be stuff that’s said or done without thought, which I understand a lot of people just don’t know no better. So that was really the only problem I’ve ever had with the internet is just people being on there talking. But I understand it now, you feel me?
You seem intentional about carrying the torch of old-school drill music. What is your connection to the Chief Keef and Lil Durks of the Chicago scene, and how important is it for you to pay homage to carry the torch in your music?
I don’t [have one], and it’s not intentional. I wouldn’t call myself “trying to carry they torch,” you feel me? I like their sound and they have a sound that’s not coming no more. That’s just what I grew up hearing, and that’s just the music I like making. As far as how I feel towards Durk and Chief Keef, of course I grew up listening to them, but I grew up really clinging to the local drill rappers who didn’t make it to see it big. For a long time I didn’t listen to mainstream artists. Like Keef and Lil Durk, after a while they was considered to be people you hear on the radio. Once your songs become so commercialized, they start to lose the street feel to it, as far as somebody that’s in the streets listening to it.
What are your thoughts on today’s drill movement?
I think drill is temporary. Honestly, I do feel like drill is temporary. I think drill is a base for music, it’s where you start, but you can’t stay drill forever.
Why not?
Cause it get old! You gotta expand just as a human, period. I don’t think it lasts. With Durk, even though Durk made the same kind of music, as he expanded in life and started to venture off into the world the music became different.
You’ve mentioned a few times you don’t like growing up, and hearing your music be so rambunctious I can’t help but feel like this is a way to capture being young. Do you think your sound will change as you get older?
Yeah, 100%. I feel like in the slightest way I’ve already changed. ‘Cause now it’s more than just making songs. Now I’m making songs with intention, with meaning, with emotion. The older I get the more my music will change.
I hear that intention on Zoo Life. When you approached that album what was the emotion driving that project?
Stress. After [I dropped] “Nachos,” that November and December, that was rough months for me. That was when the whole music industry was closing down around that time. So I took that as a vacation, I wasn’t really on it how I should’ve been. I got caught up in a lot of stuff that go on in my city. So I just got distracted and it took me off my path, and it took me a long time to recover from all that stuff mentally.
In regards to what?
Just from doing more goofy s—t that wasn’t necessary. So Zoo Life was me coming out of that state. Just me being stressed and me being worried, because when I was going to the studio during that time, the music I was making, I wasn’t feeling it for real. It just felt like everything was going down hill. Then my [streaming] numbers started dropping, and of course that’s normal, I know that now.
But yeah, it just felt like everything was going downhill. So I don’t really speak on the Zoo Life project for real, because of just the state of mind I was in. It wasn’t the best music. For somebody else that probably is the best songs they ever heard by me! But me feeling how I feel towards my music, it just wasn’t my all. I don’t even touch that project.
Tell me about “Went West.” How did it feel producing and rapping on your own song? How did it feel to have the song debut on the Billboard Hot 100?
It was surprisingly easy. Easier than I expected. I always wanted to step into it, because beat selection is something that I struggle with — because it’s a certain sound that I cling to that’s not comin’ no more, like I said. That’s why I use so many samples and instrumentals, because it’s only a certain time and era that got those. My manager Fred had an engineer at the studio I was recording at, and he brought his producing equipment just to give me a little rundown of what was going on. So before I got to the studio, the engineer had made a remake to a 2 Chainz beat. I came in and I ain’t gonna lie, I wasn’t feelin’ it. I wasn’t tryin’ to sit there and learn. I wanted to rap.
So I’m sittin’ there lettin’ him talk and do what he do and he gave me this little beat pad, and told me to just play around with it. So I tapped it a few times, and I end up hearing stuff that I liked, little patterns. So long story short, I flipped the whole beat into somethin’ else, which ended up being “Went West.” After I hit Billboard, producing became my secondary career. I got about five placements on my [new] album.
It sounds like “Went West” changed everything for you.
It redeemed my confidence, because I thought it was over with, I ain’t gonna lie. Before that, with the whole Zoo Life project, I thought I was done for — and I was ready to be done for. I was slowly accepting the fact that maybe I wasn’t meant to be here, to be in the game for this long. Cause a lot of people have had a little buzz and then poof! So I was accepting the fact that it was over with.
Yeah, how are you gonna keep the momentum goin’ with this new album?
Ok, just to let you know, “Went West” was recorded with my album. That was for the album — once I put it out there and it picked up so much wind, I just had to [go with it], but that was originally for the album. During my Summer Smash performance the DJ said, “Y’all wanna hear somethin’ off the album?” But yeah, I’m doing it big, I’m doing it great. This is it. It ain’t nothin’ like Zoo Life, it ain’t nothin’ like Animal Zone. This is gonna be bigger and better. It’s comin’.
What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in regards to trying to stay on the right path this time around?
I’m keeping people around me that’s gonna hold me accountable, and I pray a lot. That’s really it, that’s as good as it gets. I got solid people around me that have been with me through everything, and I’m see through with those people. They know everything, they see everything, they see me for me. I mean, what makes it easier is you realize you’re not perfect and you can’t be perfect. That you make mistakes and that other people make mistakes. Forgiveness is it.
Have you thought about what the future holds for BabyChiefDoIt now that you’re at this exciting point?
Nah, it’s just gonna get bigger and better.
