Though Freddie Gibbs left Gary, Indiana, for Los Angeles years ago now, the no-bullshit perspective of someone who got by in a tough post-industrial Midwestern city has stayed central to his persona. On Gibbs’ “Return” guest spot from Danny Brown’s phenomenal Old, he threatens to shoot a cop and boasts he’s “the real realest nigga in it.” For all that, Gibbs fast-talking brusqueness often sounds best complemented by mellow, glossy instrumental backdrop — see “Crushin’ Feelins,” where he declared “fuck a cosign” over guitar-rippling Statik Selektah production for his 2010 Str8 Killa No Filla mixtape. Latest track “Thug Till It’s Over” (via Miss Info) is cut from the same luxuriant cloth, with Spanish production duo Cookin’ Soul setting out a smooth, jazz-flecked space for Gibbs to make a lifetime of “smokin’ with my young mind / Killin’ through the night, I hope I live to see the sunshine” sound dangerously beguiling.
