Freddie Gibbs was toiling away in near obscurity before his recent collaboration album with producer Madlib. Although his album ESGN earned him some solid reviews and recognition, it wasn't until last year's Pinata that the rapper really came into the spotlight. The album debuted at number 39 on the Billboard 200 and received rave reviews from critics. Rolling Stone's Simon Vozick-Levinson said the album was reminiscent of rapper Raekwon's best work, writing, " It's no coincidence that one of the strongest tracks features an excellently grim guest verse from Rae himself." The album earned Gibbs legions of new hip-hop fans, and propelled him to the top of the conversation about conscious and street-minded rap. However, it appears that Gibbs will be distancing himself from the vibes of Pinata with his upcoming 2015 album, Shadow Of A Doubt.
Regarding the new direction he is taking, Gibbs said, "If Piñata was a term paper, then this sh*t is like recess." He told Exclaim, "This is that after-school right here. With Shadow Of A Doubt, I feel like I got a clip with a million bullets in it and I can't stop firing. That's what this sh*t sounds like."
According to Exclaim, the new album features R&B style beats, and Gibbs singing on many of the hooks. Gibbs chalks this up to "artistic growth."
The Indiana rapper said, "If you don't evolve, you're going to stay stagnant. I feel like we get caught up a lot in that with rap, especially gangsta rap because n***as think they got to be hard all the time and they caught up in telling us about the same sh*t. Of course I'm going to talk about the streets, the drugs, the gangs and the prostitution. But you can't limit yourself to doing the same thing over and over."
