Clifton Grefe (born October 12, 1989), better known by his stage name Beef or Beefy, is an American rapper, record producer and journalist from Madison, Wisconsin.
Career
Growing up on the Northside and rural Token Creek, Wisconsin, Beef began writing poetry and performing spoken word at a young age. After turning 16, he started rapping over beats he found.
Cliff attended University of Wisconsin–Madison in the Fall of 2008. He would eventually become a founding father of Phi Gamma Delta Mu Chapter. He worked for 93.1 JAMZ as a part-time on-air personality and producer, for the Badger Herald as a staff writer, and for Wisconsin Union Theater as a marketing intern. He would later graduate in the Spring of 2013.
Beef received national notoriety for his debut single, "Coastie Song (What's A Coastie)." The record, although intended to be flirtatious towards coasties, offended many. Some called the song "xenophobic" and others – "anti-Semitic." Beef and producer Quincy Kwalae adopted the name Zooniversity Music, following their premiere. The group's following release, "My Biddy," was also met with questions. Rich Albertoni of The Isthmus said that some would find the love song to the lesbian chancellor "funny," while others would see it as "offensive." Zooniversity would eventually drop their debut mixtape, The Red Zebra Exhibit, on May 17, 2010.
Later that year, the group premiered their first music video "Teach Me How To Bucky" during the 2010 UW Homecoming game. The song itself was a remix to Cali Swag District's popular "Teach Me How to Dougie" song.
He made the move to California in early 2015 for an editorial internship at HipHopDX. After 3 months, he was offered a freelance contributor position there (#1 contributor). Shortly after, Beef re-launched his publication/production house Basement Made, which has since become one of the most popular Hip Hop platforms in The Midwest.
Currently, the artist resides in Los Angeles and is set to release his 27-track concept album Chapter II: Double Major in 2016. Clifton announced that he'd be releasing the project as separate EP's that compose the full project – one every month. The first called Chapter II: The Hustle premiered on January 15, 2016. The artist then debuted his Chapter II: The Fall In a month later on February 22, 2016.