CHICAGO – There’s nothing about Freddie Gibbs that seems disingenuous. From his roots in Gary, Indiana to his long time spent in Los Angeles, Gibbs is just as forthright when talking about guns and drugs as he is putting Woody Allen on blast over on Snapchat, which he dubbed #TRAPCHAT a long time ago.
That energy and honesty shows through in droves at his live show. Gibbs, who connects with his audience in a way few can, will stop a verse if it wasn’t done the way he wanted the first time – or if he just wants people to hear it again for effect – and offer it back up with even more fire the second time around. With a new album on the way and Piñata, his collaboration with producer Madlib, still getting rave reviews more than a year after its release, it’s easy to think things couldn’t get much better.
They did.
Gibbs recently had a daughter at the end of April with fianceé Erica Dickerson, and there’s been a lot on his mind, although that seems to always be the case with the rapper.
So when Uproxx sat down with him following his explosive performance at Pitchfork Fest with Madlib – a performance which saw him do two encores, despite playing midday Sunday – Gibbs fired his answers off at rapid speed, tackling a bunch of subjects with ferocity.
How has having a kid changed your mindset? It seems like everyone goes through that after becoming a parent.
I don’t know, man. Having a kid was great. It’s the best thing that’s ever happened in my life. I’m an emotional guy when it comes to my family and sh*t. I kill for my family. So I don’t know. I don’t know if this sh*t, being a father, maybe turned my killer instinct up a notch. Since I had my daughter I’ve bought like five new guns. I really got something that I really love. I loved her mother before that, but now it made me really love her mother even more too, so you know.
I’m not the guy that’s got like 10 kids out here running around. I’m not that rapper. I never had kids because I always believed you shouldn’t have kids with a female unless you really care about her and you can really take care of them, you know what I mean? I’m in a real good financial spot right now. Not to say that I count money on my baby. I was just like, I wanted to do it the right way. I didn’t want my daughter to suffer the same sh*t that I did. Financial struggle. She’ll never have to suffer that. My daughter’s rich forever. She always gonna have a home, she always gonna have a car. She always gonna have it. As long as I give her the correct values, her life is gonna be fine. I’m living for her right now, man, you know?
What values do you want to give her? What do you want to instill in her?
The main thing with my daughter, man, I want to make sure my daughter’s tough. Girls are going to be girls or whatever. But I come from a tough place. I’ve got a hard shell around me, and it ain’t sh*t soft in the middle. I want my daughter to just notice she has to be tough to deal. It’s a tough world right now. People are getting killed in army recruiting centers, so you have to be mentally tough to handle the sh*t that’s going on right now [Editor’s note: This interview was conducted before the shooting tragedy in a Lafayette, Louisiana movie theater]. Giving her that toughness and that will to win that I gave to my sister. You look at my sister, my sister has a dope career, a dope family. She good. I want to instill the same thing I instilled in my sister into my daughter, man.
You brought your sister and your brother out on stage [Sunday at Pitchfork Fest]. What does family mean to you?
It means everything. I always told myself I’m the little big brother. My little brother is a doctor, and my baby sister is a scientist for the FDA. They inspire me every day. I was the older brother that was f*cking up. Seeing them get where they are in life helped me get where I am now. It’s crazy because I just had my daughter, and I was going through some sh*t three years ago with the streets and the police and the gangbanging. I was at war in the streets. My sister had her daughter, and that kind of made me straighten up my act a little bit and focus on my music. That’s when I did the album with Madlib. When my sister had her daughter, my niece, she really changed my life.
If it wasn’t for my niece, I wouldn’t know how to be a good parent to my daughter. That’s why I brought my sister and my brother out there on stage. It’s like, the people that they are helped shape me into the man that I am. I didn’t have any values at first really. I was out there reckless. Man, I’m a thug. Sh*t be serious. So I always gotta do what I gotta do to preserve that, but at the same time I have to progress as a human being and as a man, and without my family I couldn’t have done that.
Gary’s always going to have a special place in your heart. I know that. I’m a Midwest guy, and I always tell people I’m from Cleveland even though I’ve been gone a lot of the time. You’ve been gone a long time, but you’re still a Gary guy. Is that a Midwest thing?
The Midwest has so many different values. I live on the West Coast. It’s just different. I’m glad I have those Midwest values, but I live in L.A. L.A. is my second home. California is my second home because I’ve got love for the Bay too. Rest in peace to my home boy Jacka. Shout out to the big homie [E-]40. It’s just like California kind of raised me too. Indiana, Gary, Chicago, that raised me. That’s what I am forever. But I spent my whole 20s in L.A. around gangbanging in the L.A. culture and the whole California culture, so that sh*t raised me too. That whole L.A. mentality helped me out and helped me get through the industry. The Gary mentality helped me get through life.
What can you do to help a place like Gary?
Every year I try to donate something. Last year I did the football shoes for my high school. This year I did a school supplies fund. I just try to do something. I can’t change everything overnight. I don’t have political power like that. I’m not going to act like I do. But I do have a voice. With my voice I can raise funds, and do things for the children. That’s all that matters. You just gotta keep feeding the youth. You feed the youth, then everything else grows naturally. This is ESGN, evil seeds grow naturally. We’re representing the seeds that wasn’t fed, the seeds that wasn’t nurtured. We wasn’t nurtured correctly. That’s why it’s evil seeds grow naturally.
We didn’t need that nurturing. I mean we need it, but we didn’t need it to get where we at right now. It’s like the rose that grew from concrete, just like 2Pac said. I gotta reference that every time I reference ESGN because 2Pac is definitely the inspiration for everything that I do. We want to make it so the generation under us doesn’t have to want for that nurturing. We wanted that, we needed that from the generation above us, but we didn’t get it, so we’re trying to make sure we give that to the next.
One voice, another voice, and then it becomes this chain. And that chain is so much stronger than a link.
Exactly.
You mentioned ESGN – “No tricks. No labels. No gimmicks.” Is that a mentality you’re sticking to no matter what?
Dawg, I’m getting five-figure, six-figure checks for rocking these festivals. This sh*t is crazy. It’s like, no label’s gonna sign me. I got dropped from Interscope. I was supposed to be dead, left in the dust after that b*tch ass n*gga Jeezy … wrote me off, I was supposed to be dead in the dust. Everybody in the industry wrote me off. That’s why I say f*ck these rappers. Everything that I do with a rapper has to happen organically. There ain’t ever no fake sh*t. If I’m doing a feature with a n*gga, it’s because I f*ck with him heavy. There’s so much fake sh*t going on in the industry, I always try to stay above it.
The fact that I always stuck to my guns and never veered off is the reason I’m here today. I could have been lost in the dust in ’05 or ’06. Nobody ever could have f*cked with me. I could’ve been like Jibbs. I could’ve been like Hot Rod or some bullsh*t like that. Some other sh*t that was on Interscope when I was there. They tried to put me in a pot with the f*ck n*ggas, but I’m not one of them. I’m not that. You could’ve put me in a pot with Rich Boy and all that sh*t, but I’m not that. I’m something more special than that. You can’t forget about me. You can’t just put a single from Freddie Gibbs on the radio and forget about me.
I cover all phases of this sh*t. I write records. I can perform. I get out here and I work. I’m not one of those stupid ass n*ggas that don’t want to do his interviews and don’t want to do his sh*t. I get out here and do my f*cking job. At the end of the day, they can say whatever the f*ck they want to say about me, I bring home the bacon, and I don’t split my pie with no motherf*cking label. Ain’t no label telling me when I get paid. I get paid. My pie might not be as big as one of them other n*ggas, bigger n*ggas, but I eat my own pie. I don’t gotta slice no pie with nobody else.
You mentioned on stage there were a couple people here this weekend – you’re doing your thing – but you think they maybe didn’t deserve it. You wanna say who they were?
It’s like cooking crack, man. The bullsh*t is going to float away and evaporate with the steam. The real sh*t is going to lock up and that’s going to be the dope. No disrespect to any of the artists here, or any sh*t like that, but I just feel like certain guys get looks they shouldn’t get that belong to Gangsta Gibbs. At this point, I’m tired of talking about it. I’ve never had that talk-about-it mentality. I’ll talk about it when I’m on stage, but I take it.
You earn it.
I take that sh*t. I don’t give a f*ck about none of these rappers. I don’t give a f*ck about no sh*t they’ve got going on. I’m the best rapper in my mind.
Well, you’ve got to feel that way.
I’m in my own world. I don’t give a f*ck about none of the extra bullsh*t. As long as I can get in here rocking these crowds. I made millions off of rap without anybody helping me. I can’t complain at all.
The crowd responded today. And to do that, to be as close to home as you were. People don’t do two encores at 4 p.m. at a festival.
I know. Pitchfork f*cked up. They put me on too early. Honestly. Shout out to Pitchfork, I love y’all, but y’all f*cking up. Whoever you put on after me can’t f*ck with me. It is what it is, man. Rappers don’t put on shows like me. I do one of the best shows. I don’t come out there with 50 n*ggas. I don’t come out there with no hype man.
And you had Madlib out there, and he doesn’t do that all that often.
What I’m doing is 100 and super tight.
What’s it like working with him? That album is going to be one that remains, as you keep doing your thing.
I’m going to tell you this: I might not ever do another album with Madlib. Might not. But at this point in my career, you know how Rocky had Mickey? And Mickey turned Rocky into a better fighter? Madlib turned me into a better rapper. He instilled something in my career and my workflow that made me a better artist. I’m always in debt to him for this album, for this experience, for this moment. The craziest part of this album is it’s going to sit where it’s going to sit in hip hop for years, and me and Madlib are always going to be able to eat off this for years. And if we do a Part 2, Woo!
But it wouldn’t be a Part 2…
It’d be a new one.
I’ve seen you mention music as therapy in the past. Does it still feel that way to you?
Definitely. I need it. It’s like a psychiatrist to me. I’ve seen a lot of murders, a lot of drugs being sold, I’ve seen n*ggas overdosed, seen babies being killed. I need this to get this out on paper. The crazy part about it is I’m well into my career, but I still haven’t reached my prime. I still got a lot of f*cking stories to tell.
You’ve got a story to tell with that shooting in Williamsburg.
That sh*t right there. My whole new album is about that shooting. Disloyal motherf*cker set me up. It was a setup.
Freddie Gibbs’ next album, Lifestyles of the Insane, will be out sometime in 2015.
