In every career, there are turning points in which new lanes open up, and the world suddenly seems to expand. In the process, this can mean that previous plateaus now seem like a distant memory and what was once perceived as your ceiling now feels like a gross underestimation of your potential.
For Freddie Gibbs, his career has had a steady stream of these moments where any notion of what the Gary, Indiana MC operating at the top of his game looks like was dispelled. At one stage, it was believed that gritty street albums like 2012’s Baby Faced Killa would serve as the best that Gangsta Gibbs had to offer. Then, the majestic meeting of minds that was the ESGN leader rhyming over some of Madlib’s most sonically rich production on Pinata completely blew that notion out of the water.
Another project which demonstrated what he was capable of when he locks into a creative wavelength with a producer, 2019’s Alfredo may have only served to further solidify his status as one of the best in the game amid avid Hip-Hop heads, but its Grammy nod and the fact that it awarded him the highest chart position of his career served to make him more of a presence in the mainstream than at any other juncture in his career.
Three years on from his last full-length outing, Freddie Kane finds himself looking to once again surpass any preconceptions of his commercial appeal with $oul $old $eparately. Although he’s been active in the game since 2004, this project represents Gibbs’ first studio album on a major label. Distributed through a recently brokered deal with Warner, the fact that it’s taken him this long to receive the backing of the music industry machine seems like an indictment of its risk-averse nature. But in Gibbs’ view, this platform has arisen at precisely the right time.
"I listen to my old shit and it makes me wanna throw up,” he told The Guardian in a recent interview. “I didn’t understand the business. I didn’t really deserve my spot yet – I got in too early.”
Both wizened and hardened by this time in the game, it should come as no surprise Gibbs didn’t take any shortcuts nor leave so much as an unpolished bar lingering on $$$. A record that is fine-tuned to the utmost extent, Gibbs' newest opus is a conscious effort to create a turning point, and it serves as a grand reintroduction to everything that he excels at while affording him opportunities to make inroads into new soundscapes
A diverse project that’s in keeping with the duality of Gibbs himself, much of the record may have a self-assured swagger to it that’s augmented by consistently riveting production, but it also doesn’t shy away from exposing the soft tissue, repressed trauma, and emotional hang-ups that lurk just below the surface.
Kicking off on celebratory form with the blistering “Couldn’t Be Done”, a towering 16 from Freddie, as well as its glorious, Norman Feels sampling beat, sets the stage for what’s ahead. Delivered with finesse to spare, this introductory offering also brings the loose conceptual underpinning of the project to the forefront through the first of many telephone calls. This time, to the reception of the $$$ Hotel & Casino, “where your pleasure is our priority.”
Prevalent throughout the promotional material for the record, the luxurious sound which functions as the fictional resort’s hold music finally gets its payoff on The Alchemist-produced “Blackest in The Room.” Invoking that cinematic quality of mafioso flicks as only an Alc beat can, Freddie uses this initially sedate creation to show off the unabashed poignancy of his pen. In one of many instances where he revisits a painful memento from his past, Gibbs discusses how he “gotta spit it 'cause it sit on my heart/The shit I think when I look up at the stars/I went to jail, the warden put me in the hole 'cause I wouldn't rap for the guards.”
With its brassy textures serving as the calm before the storm, its abrupt but welcome beat switch attests to Gibb’s confidence in his flow and skillset considering that he barely even breaks his train of thought as the instrumental takes on a new, more foreboding tone.
Although we’re all aware that he can shine over an Alchemist or Madlib beat, one thing that makes $$$ such a worthwhile and entertaining undertaking is that at no point does Gibbs seem like he’s phoning it in or relying on his established base. In truth, he goes out of his way to make the scope of his abilities and adaptability clear.
Across the Bone Thugs-inspired gangsta crooning of “Pain and Strife” with Offset to Freddie and electronic producer Kaytranada taking a collective leap into the unfamiliar on the woozy yet ominous trap banger “Zipper Bagz”, Kane continues to take calculated risks. Imposing in scale but exhilarating in execution, Gibbs’ decision to eschew eloquence in favor of punchy statements about his lifestyle on the latter hits hard, while the underlying hints of “Sippin On Some Syrup” acts as a precursor to what awaits us later on the record with “PYS.”
Tapping into the 808-inflected sleaze of Three-6-Mafia’s homespun days with a vocal sample from 1994’s “Pimpin’ & Robbin”, this ode to women and endless revelry not only further emphasizes Freddie’s ability to turn his commanding delivery to anything, but serves as an offhand reminder of why DJ Paul is just as vital a resource to the modern industry as Juicy J has proven himself to be.
Where Gibbs has gotten used to minimizing distractions in order to create in a more contained fashion with one producer, $$$ sees him call on an expansive contact book that’d suggest this mythical hotel & casino has a revolving door policy for its high rollers.
Through voicemails from Kevin Durant, Joe Rogan, Jeff Ross, and — most comically of all — ‘Jesus’, Gibbs helps to flesh out the story that he’s not in a recording studio at all, but undergoing a drug-induced odyssey into his own mind while holed up in a hotel suite.
Accompanied by the telltale sound of snorting at the outset of the Boi-1da helmed “Space Rabbit”, you get the sense that he really has gone to ground, and his rampant thoughts — of both past and present — present themselves in his rhymes.
Celebrity cameos might be one thing, but the use of his Rolodex doesn't end there. Although his declaration that his first major label album would have “more features” probably stirred some concern, what’s relieving is that none of them feel like they’ve been engineered by an A&R and are in keeping with his vision. From Kelly Price to Musiq Soulchild, $$$ permits Gibbs to pluck artists from across eras rather than any attempt at adhering to what's trendy. So, while “Too Much” with Moneybagg Yo may sound like a radio single on paper, the end product feels both organic and rewarding. On top of the match made in heaven that is Freddie and Rozay trading bars over the opulent Jake One production of “Lobster Omelette” and Anderson Paak & Raekwon taking center stage on “Feel No Pain”, “Gold Ring” with Pusha T hits all the intended notes. A twinkling, bass-heavy dope dealer anthem from Seven Thomas, it may not be assigned the magnitude or fanfare of a “Drug Dealers Anonymous” or “Neck & Wrist”, but it doesn’t prevent the latest in a line of coke-flecked collabs between Pusha T & Freddie from feeling like something special. In all honesty, it just makes us wonder what would be possible if they ever came together for that joint project Gibbs alluded to back in 2021.
When he’s not making it clear that he’s not to be trifled with in his own typically cutthroat fashion, much of the album’s latter stages sees Freddie exhibit more pronounced vulnerability than we've seen since You Only Live 2wice.
While the enormity of its beat from The Justice League can't be overstated, Freddie doesn’t allow his words to be overshadowed on “Rabbit Vision” as he details the fractious dynamic between him and his former CTE mentor, spitting, “me and Jeezy still ain't spoke in years, but I got love for him, could've talked it out, but I spoke out, I let it get to me showed me I could be a fuckin' boss, best thing he did for me.”
On the gloomy “Dark Hearted”, Freddie uses James Blake’s haunting, operatic instrumental to detail the lengths that desperation will bring you to, asking “what n***s know about hard time, empty stomach give you the heart to go do a homicide.”
The most arresting of all of his allusions to the fact that his relationship with substances might not necessarily be a healthy one, the stark gravity of claims such as “I smoke a blunt to take the pain out and if I wasn't high, I'd probably try to blow my brains out” on “Grandma’s Stove” hit harder when it comes from an MC who is known for his levity. In keeping with the track’s contemplative direction, Freddie boldly prises the wound of his relationship with his ex-fiance Erica Dickerson back open in full view, discussing how “we could've fixed shit between us, but I couldn't fight my demons. I never knew shit would lеad us to child support subpoenas. Rap deadbeat daddy, that's how thеy try to paint me and that's a shame 'cause those that know me know I love my babies”.
Rueful as these thoughts may be, the record ends on a musically exultant high with the Madlib-devised “CIA.” Replete with the grandeur of their two collaborative project’s biggest tracks, it’s a scintillating final cut as he speaks on the enforced ills of society, proclaiming “CIA, they gave us crack, Instagram, and AIDS.”
Although it may not have the sustained tone of an Alfredo or the sheer hunger of Pinata, $$$ ultimately accomplishes exactly what it had to at this juncture in Freddie’s career and does it with dazzling style and exquisite bars to spare.
Beyond that, through tastefully bringing others into his orbit, Freddie only reasserts how much of a singular entity he is in today’s industry. True to himself, yet mindful that he wants to leave a decorated legacy in the game, $$$ sees Gibbs not just find his feet within the major label structure, but defiantly plant his flag in it. Should he continue to so resolutely do him, there’s no telling what this self-assured, yet unwaveringly honest form of Freddie Kane is capable of in the months, years, and maybe even decades, to come.
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