Elliot Wilson and Brian “B.Dot” Miller of Tidal’s Rap Radar Podcast series sat down with Freddie Gibbs to discuss his fourth studio album Freddie, which dropped June 22, 2018.
The album’s artwork pays homage to the legendary Teddy Pendergrass’ album Teddy using the same layout for the album art and the flyest Teddy Pendergrass suit.
“I saw that Teddy album cover and thought, I gotta do whatever I gotta do to recreate that, but I can’t do it in a corny way, I can’t f*** this up”
Even though the promo for the album may have fooled us into thinking that Freddie Gibbs is moving into the R&B lane with tracks like “Whippin Dope With Tyrone,” your first playthrough will leave you pleasantly surprised.
Freddie has 10 tracks on it, has a run time of twenty-five minutes, and it’s still that potent dope Gangsta Gibbs serves up consistently.
The interview touches on the rebirth of Freddie Gibbs’ career after dealing with a legal battle, and jail time in Austria.
Gangsta Gibbs was arrested in June of 2016 after a show in France for an alleged rape after a 2015 show in Austria, he was acquitted in September 2016 of all charges.
Gangsta Gibbs commented during the interview,
“It was a big setback, and I knew that I was going to get acquitted of course, because I didn’t do anything, but I didn’t know if it was gonna f*** my name up so I needed to go through the courts and get everything out in the open”
To which Elliot Wilson Replied,
“When did you begin to feel like the legal issues were behind you, like you could move forward with your career?”
Gangsta Gibbs replied,
“Probably during the You Only Live 2wice tour, you know I was going around the country, and no one would approach me and say no stupid s***, and I realized aight cool I’m good out here.”
Through it all Freddie Gibbs kept his mind on the music, putting out two captivating projects, You Only Live 2wice and his most recent Freddie, since resolving the legal issues.
He lets us know during the interview that another project with Madlib titled Bandana 2, will be coming out at some point in what we hope is our near future. He commented,
“I’m just sitting on Bandana for now, it felt to serious for this moment. You know I want to put that out later because its so serious you know, we’re talkin something I recorded over the course of three or four years you know. There are a lot of things that I talked about on that album and I wasn’t ready to put it out yet”
Freddie Gibbs, B.Dot, and Elliot Wilson continue through the interview talking about Gangsta Gibbs’ stage presence, sports journalism career, being a LeBron James stan, and hanging with Too $hort, who is a bonus guest on this dope interview.
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