HUM RECORDS

Madlib & Freddie Gibbs
Cocaine Pinata

TIP

USA 2xLP

Label: Madlib Invazion

Release Year: 2014

Style: Hip-Hop & R'n'B

Tracks

SIDE A
1. Supplier
2. Scarface
3. Deeper
4. High ft. Danny Brown
5. Haroldï¿½s

SIDE B
6. Bomb ft. Raekwon
7. Shitsville
8. Thugginï¿½
9. Real
10. Uno

SIDE C
11. Robes ft. Domo Genesis & Earl Sweatshirt
12. Broken ft. Scarface
13. Lakers ft. Ab-Soul & Polyester the Saint

SIDE D
14. Knicks
15. Shame ft. BJ The Chicago Kid
16. Watts ft. Big Time Watts
17. Cocaine Piï¿½ata ft. Domo Genesis, G-Wiz, Casey Veggies, Sulaiman, Meechy Darko, & Mac Miller

Freddie Gibbs is the product of violent, drug-laden streets, but unlike most rappers with similar resumes, he brings the block to the booth without inhibition or an exaggerated rap persona. Pinata, a 17-track collaboration with producer Madlib, is the best distillation yet of his transparent approach to making music, combining stark honesty with electrifying talent as a lyricist and performer.

Pinata is ï¿½a gangster Blaxploitation film on wax,ï¿½ Gibbs says, and the full-length result of a process that began in 2009. Itï¿½s an album with a sound that couldnï¿½t be any further from the radio, where, according to the Gibbs, every rapper is Superman, or the dope dealer of the century, who has grinded to the top, never made a mistake and has no chinks in his armor.

ï¿½I will show you my flaws, Iï¿½ll show you what Iï¿½ve done wrong and what Iï¿½ve fucked up at,ï¿½ says the native of Gary, Indiana, the former steel town best known for producing Michael Jackson. ï¿½I donï¿½t regret shit, but Iï¿½ll show you the things Iï¿½m not proud of.ï¿½

Gibbs is joined on Pinata by Mac Miller, Earl Sweatshirt, Raekwon, Scarface, Domo Genesis, Ab-Soul and a host of others in setting his soliloquies of the streets alongside film snippets and dusted funk, soul and prog musical tapestries. While this is the latest in a series of single-artist collaborations for Madlib, after Jaylib (J Dilla), Madvillainy (MF Doom) and the street-centric O.J. Simpson with Detroitï¿½s Guilty Simpson, the pairing is unique as it is the first time for Gibbs working with just one producer.

Thereï¿½s also Madlibï¿½s own self-awareness of his style as a producer. ï¿½My stuff, it ainï¿½t fully quantizedï¿½it has more of a human feel, so it might slow down or speed up,ï¿½ he says. ï¿½So you have to be the type of rapper, like Doom or Freddie, who can catch that, or else youï¿½ll be sounding crazy.ï¿½

Gibbs admits it was a challenge rapping over beats with chops and changes as unpredictable as the man who created them, but saysï¿½with conviction and supreme confidenceï¿½ï¿½I think I did it to perfection.ï¿½

The perfection is apparent on the album, where Gibbs shifts from textbook lessons in robbing and drugging on tracks like ï¿½Scarfaceï¿½ and ï¿½Knicks,ï¿½ to perhaps the albumï¿½s most personal song, ï¿½Broken,ï¿½ a collaboration with Scarface, who, along with Tupac, DMX and 50 Cent, make up the rapperï¿½s own Mount Rushmore of MCs (ï¿½Youï¿½re getting a hurricane of all those motherfuckers hitting you at once when you listen to Freddie Gibbs,ï¿½ he says). ï¿½Deeper,ï¿½ a Gibbs favorite and the third single from the album after ï¿½Thugginï¿½ï¿½ (2012) and ï¿½Shame,ï¿½ (2013) is an ode to hip-hop in the mold of Commonï¿½s ï¿½I Used to Love H.E.R.ï¿½; ï¿½High,ï¿½ featuring Danny Brown, is self-explanatory and just what you would expect from Gibbs, Madlib and one of Detroitï¿½s finest; while on ï¿½Real,ï¿½ Gibbs addresses an old score just as Michael Corleone settled all family business on baptism day.

Itï¿½s tracks like ï¿½Realï¿½ that makes fans believe Gibbsï¿½ claim that ï¿½Iï¿½m about to show niggas how to rap again.ï¿½ And heï¿½s just as loyal. ï¿½As long as I keep satisfying them,ï¿½ he says, ï¿½everybody else is going to fall in line.

As a producer, Madlib, quite simply, is music, and ten years into his careerï¿½a time when other artists become comfortableï¿½Gibbs remains restless, focused, with an eye on the competition and their position relative to his ascent. This is because mentally, heï¿½s still on the corner hustling, which would be the downfall of the average rapper. Gibbs, however, isnï¿½t average.

ï¿½When it comes to the nuts and bolts, the nitty gritty of this shit, flat-out spitting verse for verse,ï¿½ he says. ï¿½Niggas ainï¿½t on my level.ï¿½ ï¿½Ronnie Reese, January 2014

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