Freddie Gibbs may not be a household name, but to those who are in the know, he’s one of the most beloved and respected figures from the last decade of hip-hop.
Gibbs has endeared himself to fans through full-length collaborative albums with some of the genre’s most beloved producers, including 2014’s “Piñata” and 2019’s “Bandana” with Madlib and 2020’s “Alfredo” with The Alchemist, which was followed this year with the sequel “Alfredo 2.” Alongside his solo projects, that puts Gibbs at 10 full LPs since 2013, comfortably placing him in the upper echelon of prolificity among his peers. All that hard work, and all those great records, have helped the Indiana rapper build a fanbase that showed up in droves for his Saturday night set at Revolution Live’s Backyard stage in Fort Lauderdale. The show may not have been technically sold out, but it felt significantly more crowded than other sets I’ve attended at the same space over the last few years, with every square inch of ground occupied by fans in spite of the evening’s sweltering October heat.
As a stop on “Alfredo: The Tour,” this date featured support from North Carolina rapper Mavi, but unfortunately did not include the Alchemist himself, who is strangely not performing on every date of the run despite being featured prominently in its marketing. The crowd didn’t seem to mind, however, as Gibbs was the sole center of attention from the moment he took the stage and likely would have been regardless of who manned the decks.
Few modern MCs are as effortlessly cool as Gibbs, whose distinctive deep baritone pairs uniquely with his ability for rapid-fire technical proficiency. Yet perhaps his greatest strength is his good taste. From his choices in collaborators to the roundly excellent quality of his beats across so many projects, Gibbs has developed an ability to create with his music a world that one can step into, and this show was no different. Performing in front of a stage backdrop that was set up to mimic the facade of a ramen shop while sporting what seemed to be a martial arts outfit, Gibbs leaned in hard to Far East culture and brought the audience with him for the ride.
Due to the size of the crowd, it was difficult to effectively gauge the sound (or see the stage, for that matter), but as with many rap shows, attendance was less about taking in the minutiae of the performance and more about allowing oneself to be swallowed up into its vibe. For those who knew the songs, and perhaps even for those who didn’t, it was an opportunity to revel in a decade’s worth of great songs and marvel at one man’s ability to fit as many words as possible into a brief amount of time. For an artist who’s made a career out of consistency in the underground, Saturday night was just another reminder that Gibbs doesn’t need to be a household name to hit the next level—he’s already there.
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