Raised in the same Atlanta neighborhood as Young Thug, Lil Keed was deeply influenced by the artist’s musical style long before he signed with his record label, YSL. Keed’s style of rapping flies close to the erratic, Auto-Tuned trap that Thug pioneered, and after firmly establishing himself in the Atlanta area, he made a national breakthrough with hook-laden, technicolour singles like ‘Fetish’, receiving extensive airplay and picking up millions of YouTube views in a matter of months. Lil Keed started rhyming and recording music alongside his brother Lil Gotit, generating a significant buzz around his home-produced, online uploads in 2017.

The death of a friend and fellow rapper pushed Keed to take his music more seriously, and he began working towards his first official release: early offerings like ‘Blicky Blicky’ helped to raise Keed’s profile around his hometown before catching the ear of Young Thug, who signed the rapper to his YSL imprint and released his 2018 mixtape Trapped on Cleveland 2. Keed followed this up with a feature on Lil Uzi Vert’s ‘Heavy Metal’, before issuing his second mixtape Keed Talk To Em in December. Boasting contributions from 21 Savage, Trippie Redd, Lil Durk and Lil Yachty, the 15-track tape announced the arrival of one of hip-hop’s most exciting newcomers. Lil Keed’s debut album, Long Live Mexico, was released in May 2019 and accompanied by singles ‘Proud of Me’, ‘Oh my God’ and ‘Pull Up’.