Freddie Gibbs is stepping into 2021 with a new-found sense of confidence and a profound desire to be acknowledged for the art he has contributed to this generation’s line up of MC’s. From first glance, Freddie Gibbs doesn’t seem like the type of man or artist to have ever struggled with his confidence.
We picture Freddie Gibbs as the hard MC – spitting bars as lethal as the streets he was forced to occupy. Gibbs is known as the cocaine pushing, under-ground hip-hop connoisseur whose sound takes inspiration from Tupac to Nas. Gibbs, much like the legendary rappers that came before him, also has this balance of fantasy and reality present in his music.
Gibbs’s music often contains lyrics that bring awareness to the many ways racism and capitalism are utilized in order to keep the black community from attaining material wealth.
The hard persona that Gibbs has taken on is a product of him having to constantly be in survival mood- whether that be having to be forced to serve drugs in order to buy a meal or claim shelter in which gunshots aren’t flying in from the windows of cars as many times as the wind rustles the trees.
Racism and capitalism both tell Freddie Gibbs and every other black man in society that he will inevitably succumb to very little – their opportunities are few and far between and it’s intentional. The institutions of racism and capitalism alone secure their chances of fortune to be either dangled right in front of their faces like a fish on a hook, or somewhere high up in the imagination – success lingers in the dreams.
Gibbs’s last album, Alfredo, earned him a Grammy nomination for best rap album of 2020. Alfredo directly uncovered how much guilt and at the same time hatred Gibbs was feeling while he became more and more rich.
The reality is that he spent many years living the life that was set up for African Americans to have – poverty, hustling, and violence. Alfredo had Gibbs entangled in guilt for the lifestyle he has now claimed – one filled with an endless supply of liquor, flashy cars, and a palace to claim as home.
This is when the “fantasy” starts to switch before the eyes, and the life that Gibbs dreamed for himself is now manifested as his living reality. The guilt that came from him having this new-found abundance as his brothers and sisters continued to have more stripped from them was consuming him.
However, that guilt seems to be something that Gibbs has shed in 2020. In 2021, Gibbs put himself on his own pedestal – not in a conceited, self-absorbed way but with justification and pride.
He has learned how to justify and validate himself, whether or not he did win the award or gain the recognition – He knows he deserves to be there regardless. The scarcity mindset he has been conditioned to have is now fading away.
On “Big Boss Rabbit,” Gibbs’s flow is more speedy than ever. His words bounce off the instrumentation with as much force as the energizer bunny. The beat selection for this single is also quite different from the Madlib production he is used to. “Big Boss Rabbit” has no jazz or soul lurking underneath the raps. Instead, it is sonically influenced by electronic and club music.
He raps, “I put that president on my wrist and I got frostbit. Stack it like Pringles, you want a single? It’s gon’ cost you.”
Gibbs once again is re-establishing his right to gain material wealth and his right to be proud of his hold he has on the rap industry currently. In the music video, you see Gibbs indulging in luxury, seeing the horizon of prosperity continually rising for him.
