Scope’d: Freddie Gibbs

Freddie Gibbs is one of the XXL Freshmen Class of 2010. After J. Cole he’s easily my favorite of the new class of freshman. So let’s get to know him.

Freddie Gibbs is a rapper from Gary, Indiana, now based in Southern California. He was signed by Interscope Records before being let go from his deal without a record being released. Subsequent to this, in 2009, he brought out The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs—a compilation of his work to that date, mixing mixtape tracks with unreleased studio material—and midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmusic—a collection of new music. Both were released for free to the internet.

His style is gangsta rap. He is reminiscent of Tupac in his detailing of struggle, emotion and social hardship interspersed with odes to marijuana and tales of criminality and the pimp life, though his Southern-sounding cadences and easy drops into double-time rapping for many critics conjure parallels with UGK, Z-Ro and Outkast (midwestgangsta…’s title being a play on that of Outkast’s 1994 debut, southernplayalisticadillacmuzik).

That’s his Wiki bio. I got put onto Freddie Gibbs because of his XXL cover. I ran his track Murda On My Mind on B.S. Radio and I was hooked.

His bio says he spits like Pac which is true but personally I think his rap style is better compared to Z-Ro. They’re voices are pretty identical and their detail in the struggle is just amazing.

Peep out the tracks below and if ya dig there’s a link to his DJ Skee hosted mixtape “midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmusic”

What It Be Like

Thug Psalms

XXL Freshman Freestyle

Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuzik (mixtape)