Durk was affiliated with Glory Boys Entertainment early in his career but never signed. He considered rap as a full-time career after the release of his two singles, “Sneak Dissin” and “Ima Hitta”, which received generally positive feedback.^[3] In December 2012, Durk released a remix to his song “L’s Anthem” featuring French Montana^[4] On May 21, 2013, Lil Durk inked a deal on French Montana’s label, Coke Boys.^[5]

After a couple delays, on October 10, 2013, his fourth mixtape Signed To the Streets got released on DatPiff. It was released under his own label OTF and Coke Boys. It features two guest appearances from Lil Reese and production credits from Paris Bueller, Young Chop and more.^[6] 8 music videos have been released for the mixtape: “Bars Pt. 2”, “Oh My God”, “100 Rounds”, “Dis Ain’t What U Want”, “Bang Bros”, “Traumatized”, “Hittaz” and “Times”. Signed to the Streets would be named the eighth best mixtape of 2013 by Rolling Stone.^[7] On October 22, 2013, in an interview with XXL Lil Durk said he was working on his debut album with Def Jam and the Coke Boys collaboration album.^[8] He was planning to release his fifth mixtape, Fuckery, on January 5, 2014. However, on January 6, 2014, Lil Durk stated on Twitter that Def Jam told him not to release the free mixtape.^[9] Durk was named part of the 2014 XXL Freshmen Class.^[10]

On March 27, 2014, Durk’s manager Uchenna “Chino Dolla” Agina was shot and killed in Chicago’s Avalon Park neighborhood.^[11] This shooting death came just two days after Durk announced his forthcoming debut album Remember My Name would be released on May 12, 2015 and the release of the album’s first single “Like Me.”

However, on April 20, 2014, Durk revealed the official album cover for Remember My Name and announced a new release date of June 2, 2015.^[