The reason why Freddie Gibbs “pissed off” Kanye West: “A slap in the face”
Freddie Gibbs ticked a collaboration off his bucket list in 2024 by working with Kanye West. The Chicago rapper is someone Gangsta Gibbs looks up to and has been a longtime fan of his work. However, Ye ended up being annoyed with Gibbs’ verse for a reason only Mr West would likely have a problem with.
When someone recruits someone for a verse, you’d like to think that they have their best interests at heart. By extending the invitation, it only makes sense that they’d want the artist to return their best vocals, right? Not in the case of Kanye.
Ye brought Gibbs on board the song ‘Back to Me’ for his Ty Dolla $ign collaborative album, Vultures 1, in February last year. The track, produced by Ye, Ty, 88-Keys, AyoAA, and Wax Motif, was a chart success, peaking at number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In his verse, Gibbs raps, “This that shit that make rap n*ggas mad, yeah/ Fuckin’ two twins, I told her skinny was in/ So she took out all the ass, kept it natural/ But that thing still movin’, I had to knock it down/ Yeezy, where we at?” It was Gibbs in his element, name-dropping everything from Maybach to Kanye’s former friend, Elon Musk.
Many people have pointed out his verse as one of the highlights on Vultures 1, but according to Gibbs, Kanye “drowned that out.” During his appearance on The Butcher Block Podcast, the Indiana rapper opened up about Ye’s reaction to people thinking he had a better verse than him.
“This n*gga Kanye was mad about that shit,” he said. “That n*gga was telling n*ggas like, ‘Man, how the fuck this n*gga think his verse is the best on my album?’ Gibbs came across an opinion piece about Gibbs having the best verse this year, so he forwarded it on to Kanye, expecting a positive response. It was anything but that.
“When I sent it to him, I sent it to him thinking that, with the premise, he’d be proud of me,” he explained. “‘Cause I look up to you. So I would think that, I rapped on your album, and people talking about it like this, you would think that a n*gga like you would be proud of me. That pissed him off.”
Gibbs revealed that he took time out of his busy schedule to fly overseas for the song, and feels like he didn’t receive the respect he deserves. “A lot of that shit was a slap in the face,” he said. “I’m putting my shit on pause to be on Vultures, bitch ass n*gga. I could be recording Alfredo 2. I put a lot of shit on hold to come to Italy to work with you, and for you to shit on some of my best work ’cause you mad ’cause n*ggas saying it’s better, you know what I’m saying?”
This isn’t the first time Kanye has been concerned about another verse outshining him. Ye was hesitant about including Nicki Minaj’s verse on ‘Monster’ due to her impressive performance, but in the end, he put her vocals on the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy gem.