The people who brand Gibbs little more than a “traditionalist” remind me of a tediously “progressive” Creative Writing professor I once had, a strait-laced shrew who once informed me that the traditional narrative was dead. If other rapper’s live life like a soap opera, Gibbs constructs evocative worlds in 16 bars. “Freddie Gibbs grew up on fried bologna/ around the dealers and smokers/I’m smoking fried with my homies.” The details are incidental and unleavened. Harold’s chicken shack and Canelle (sic?), the anonymous Cadillac kingpin of his childhood. He doesn’t sip 40’s, it’s 211 Steel Reserve. The small things always matter. And cameos from the Boot Camp Clik can only help. Sean P might not “Wale and them,” but it’s nice to know he’ll make legitimate exceptions.–Weiss
Download:
MP3: Freddie Gibbs ft. Sean Price & Tek-“The Ghetto Remix”
