Freddie Gibbs is a fascinating artist with a long and prolific music career. The Indiana act (real name Fredrick Tipton) is a Grammy-award-winning musician who has grown and evolved over the years with his music. Gibbs was persistent concerning his craft, and it took him a fair while to break into the mainstream. However, once he did, people fell in love with his artistry.
Gibbs first appeared on the radar of hip-hop after the release of his 2009 mixtape, The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs. A personal take on Lauryn Hill’s 1998 project, the body of work featured instrumentals from the likes of Just Blaze and gave him vast amounts of exposure.
The mixtape was one of two that he released that summer. Many in the industry doubted Freddie Gibbs. In 2004, he was signed by Interscope, only to be dropped in 2006. On The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs, the emcee reveals how he couldn’t even get on local Chicago radio as an artist who had been let go from a major label.
However, in 2010, he was featured on the cover of XXL magazine as one of their ‘Freshmen.’ Although this didn’t push Gibbs straight into a record deal, akin to Chance The Rapper, he was hugely popular without a label and developed a cult following. Tipton worked extensively with Madlib in the 2010s, and in 2020, after years of hard graft, eventually was ushered into Warner Records.
In a 2022 interview with Pitchfork, Tipton discussed his childhood influences, career goals and how he sees himself in the context of contemporary hip-hop. Speaking with Dylan Green, the 41-year-old musician expressed his love for 1990s and 2000s rap.
Addressing his love for early-90s California hip-hop, Gibbs explained, “My father was a big Ice Cube fan, and we used to bump Kill at Will. Cube was dissing [N.W.A.] by that point. He’d already put out ‘No Vaseline’ and all that. When Dre split from Eazy-E, the thing between him and Cube kinda died down. It was a real dynamic time in music.”
However, there was a 2000s artist that Tipton declared could “whoop” everyone. The ‘Thuggin’ Piñata’ lyricist recalled how he admired Nelly standing up to golden-age artists, detailing, “KRS-One was hating on my nigga Nelly. Rather have these niggas rapping than be breaking in your house.
He continued, “Nelly said, ‘I am number one!’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, Nelly’s fighting back.’ Nelly ain’t no hoe. Nelly’ll whoop yo ass. Nellyville went four times platinum or some sh*t. You put on ‘Hot in Herre’ in a club right now, it’s about to be a 100% pussy rate, for sure!”
Nelly was undoubtedly a powerful force in the 2000s. From ‘Flap Your Wings’ to ‘Dilemma,’ the St Louis rhymer had a lot of power and influence in the charts. You can listen to Nelly’s ‘Hot In Herre’ in the video below.
