Ahead of his new album Timeless coming out next week on June 7, KAYTRANADA recently gave Rolling Stone a wonderful interview. In it, he reflects on much of his personal evolution and his career trajectory, with one particular moment being a key point of support and reminiscing. Moreover, the Haitian-Canadian producer came out as gay in a 2016 piece with The FADER, and took this RS opportunity to reflect on that development. Specifically, he spoke on how Freddie Gibbs was one of the first artists to champion his experience and perspective, which gave him hope moving forward in an industry that used to treat the LGBTQIA2+ community much more harshly, and that sometimes still falls victim to that bigotry.
"I still don’t think many people know that I’m gay. Even with that story," KAYTRANADA remarked to Rolling Stone. "Freddie Gibbs was one of the first artists that was like, ‘I’m proud of you, man, keep doing your thing.’ I thought that was crazy. That gave me hope. Now, we got Lil Nas X and rappers from the LGBT community just coming out. R&B artists, too. It’s more acceptable and more welcome. I heard Snoop [Dogg] and Dr. Dre were performing at Pride in L.A. That’s crazy." Freddie even quote-tweeted coverage of this thankfulness with another sweet message: "That’s my homie in real life tho [fingers crossed emoji]."
Freddie Gibbs Responds To KAYTRANADA's Thankfulness
As for their link-ups, KAYTRANADA and Freddie Gibbs have a couple of tracks together, namely "My Dope House," "Alexys," and the KAYTRAMINÉ cut "letstalkaboutit." Hopefully the Big Boss Rabbit and the "Lover/Friend" sonic wizard reunite for some more collabs in the future. While Freddie won't appear on Timeless (as listed at press time), there are plenty of other amazing guests to look forward to. These include Channel Tres, Childish Gambino, PinkPantheress, Don Toliver, Charlotte Day Wilson, Thundercat, Anderson .Paak, Mariah The Scientist, Ravyn Lenae, and many more.
Meanwhile, KAYTRANADA is fresh off releasing one of the surefire summer bops of 2024 with Mach-Hommy and 03 Greedo's "#RICHAXXHAITIAN," the titular track off Mach's newest masterpiece. If Timeless lives up to that moniker, we're in for an absolute treat. Surely we'll get some more breezy jams and bops to blast all the way through blistering days under the sun. But most importantly, it's great to hear KAYTRA reflect on those who had his back every step of the way.