If you picked up a copy of today’s Chicago Reader, then you may have a noticed a familiar face on The Reader’s B-Side — Gangsta Gibbs. The cover story explores Gibbs’ ESGN album, today’s gangsta rap and more. Definitely an interesting read.
Freddie Gibbs, a native of Gary, Indiana, who now lives in Los Angeles, has released ten mixtapes since 2004, and his first “official” full-length, last month’s ESGN, is aimed directly at that same mixtape audience. When Gibbs signed a production deal with Interscope in 2007 (only to be dropped the same year), he was considerably more gangsta than the average rapper. Judging by the material from his brief major-label stint that later turned up on mixtapes, he was completely uninterested in projecting a radio-friendly image—in fact the only thing he really seemed to want to get across was an unflinching reflection of the blighted streets of Gary. He prefers brutally sparse, punishingly hard beats, and he has the on-mike presence of a guard dog straining at its chain.
Gibbs remains defiantly thugged-out on ESGN, an album that exudes felonious intent with every beat. Sometimes breathtaking in its anticommercialism, it’s an enormous middle finger raised to the very concept of crossover success, especially if getting it requires emulating Drake in any way. The lead single, “One Eighty Seven,” which Gibbs has described in an interview with XXLmagazine as “straight for the clubs,” is menacing, bass-heavy, and minimalist, combining horror-movie-soundtrack bells and raps about casually murdering people—at most clubs I know, it would scare the shit out of people.
Check out the full article right here.