Freddie Gibbs Releases Surprise Project, “Freddie” via ESGN Records/Empire

After breaking onto the scene almost 10 years ago, Freddie Gibbs quickly became one of our favorite emcees out there.  There were a number of factors that played into the Gary, Indiana rapper’s appeal with his lyrical ability being at the forefront, followed closely by his relentless dedication to pushing out quality material at an alarming rate.  With his gritty subject matter and authentic representation of street life, Gangsta Gibbs was a refreshing and believable voice, reminiscent of Tupac in his ability to paint potent, visceral and nuanced imagery with his music.  In a world of studio gangsters flashing chains and imitating one-dimensional stereotypes, Freddie was a real dude who felt like he could smoke you at a moment’s notice if he wasn’t so focused on the larger picture, creating a better path for himself and his family, while directing all of his focus on carving out his own lane to make that a reality.  Anyone that even slightly doubts his hustle need only look at his 2009 mixtape with DJ Skee, The Label’s Tryin To Kill Me, which offers up 80 tracks over 2 hours worth of verses and various freestyles.  Who else has that much confidence in their ability to consistently produce, that they’d dump out that much free material, right out the gate, and not think twice about it?

Another impressive aspect of Freddie is that he hasn’t restricted himself to one particular sound, effortlessly collaborating with various artists; a particular highlight being Piñata, his critically acclaimed 2014 effort with groundbreaking LA producer, Madlib.  In fact, the duo is currently hard at work on a sequel, but in the meantime, Gibbs just dropped a brand new 10-track project out of the blue today on his own ESGN in collaboration with EMPIRE.  The following details come to us via the press release

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Freddie sees the artist from Gary, Indiana returning to his roots as a street rapper, while updating the trap music formula with new and varied flows across the tape’s ten tracks. Freddiefeatures production from rising-talents such as Kenny beats, Dupri, Richgains, and others. The release is executive produced by Gibbs and Ben “Lambo” Lambert and is largely carried by Gibbs aside from a memorable verse from LA’s 03 Greedo on “Death Row” and vocals from Freddie’s daughter on the project’s closing track “Diamond’s 2.”

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From what we’ve heard so far, this is an often dusty release that should easily appeal to many folks who don’t typically gravitate toward trap music, at all.  Meanwhile, songs like “Triple Threat” deliver a much sultrier foundation to support G‘s  flow, while the beat for “2 Legit” contains synthy R&B throwback elements of it’s own, and the “FLFM (Interlude)” unapologetically kicks the door wide open on that sexy LSG vibe.  Both the front and back cover art takes things further with Freddie doing a direct parody of Teddy, the third album by R&B crooner, Teddy Pendergrass, from 1979.  Coincidentally, tomorrow actually marks the 39 year anniversary of that bedroom ballad classic being released.

Gibbs might be rapping about slanging coke in the streets, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have a great sense of humor, as evidenced by this advanced teaser video that hit the web just yesterday.

I’m not going to lie, I’m a little disappointed that there’s no “Whippin Dope With Tyrone” on this album.

Freddie can currently be streamed through various platforms by clicking HERE, with physical copies on CD and colored vinyl available for pre-order through EMPIRE.