John Waite’s “Missing You” is an ‘80s treasure. It came out in 1984, just as mainstream rock was really getting into a heartland phase—see Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A., out the same year, or John Mellencamp’s Scarecrow, from 1985. Waite’s tune chugs like a locomotive, and he’s consumed by ragged, heart-on-his-sleeve yearning. “I ain’t missing you!” he sing-yells over and over, and each time, he affirms how much he is actually missing you. The song has earned covers from huge names like Tina Turner and Brooks & Dunn.
In a wildly unpredictable twist, Chief Keef—who has been making some seriously strange songs for at least a year—used Waite’s tune as the basis for his latest track, a tribute to Big Glo. You read right: watch the clip below, and you’ll see an autotuned Keef and a singer named Jenn Em emoting over those sturdy, irresistible '80s rock chords. Keef gleefully ignores the song's structure and squeezes way too many syllables into every line, and then Jenn comes in and destroys the hook. Unlike Waite, Keef doesn't have a problem admitting how he feels, and he ends the track somberly: “just know this—I miss you big Big Glo.”
Read FADER's cover story on Chief Keef here.
