Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - 'Pinata' (Vinyl LP Record [2LP])

Sold Date: July 29, 2020
Start Date: January 28, 2020
Final Price: $19.78 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 14111
Buyer Feedback: 0


Brand new vinyl record.

SHIPPING TIME AND RETURN POLICY:

SHIPPING: We ship within 2 business days of payment most of the time (orders place over the weekend won't be processed until the following Monday. We ship via USPS: First Class for CDs, Media Mail for vinyl, and First Class Mail International for overseas orders (orders over 4lb require Priority Mail International). Actual shipping time varies by destination.

RETURNS: We generally do not accept returns except if something is not as described, and we take care to make sure everything fits our description. Sometimes CDs or vinyl will have a "cut-out" slice or "promo punch" either in the corner or through the UPC code - we will include this in the description if applicable. If there is a problem with an item, contact us and we will figure out the best action to take. We do NOT accept returns if you decide you simply don't like the item, or have buyer's remorse - buy wisely, and ask questions if necessary. Damage incurred during shipping should be brought up with the carrier but is extremely rare as we box everything adequately, including using extra cardboard for protection.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMBINING SHIPPING ON MULTIPLE ITEMS WE SELL:

Use "Add To Cart". Before paying, there is a button marked "Ask Seller For A Total" - click this. Wait one business day for us to change the invoice or else it will charge you full shipping for each item (we will not refund extra shipping once paid). This may not work from a phone, only a computer. We have to change shipping by hand - typically we charge what is close to the actual cost with maybe a $1 USD handling fee per item to cover the cost of packing materials.

Item Summary:

Freddie Gibbs is the product of violent, drug-laden streets, but unlike most rappers with similar resumes, he brings the block to the booth without inhibition or an exaggerated rap persona. Pinata, a 17-track collaboration with producer Madlib, is the best distillation yet of his transparent approach to making music, combining stark honesty with electrifying talent as a lyricist and performer.

Pinata is "a gangster Blaxploitation film on wax," Gibbs says, and the full-length result of a process that began in 2009. It's an album with a sound that couldn't be any further from the radio, where, according to the Gibbs, every rapper is Superman, or the dope dealer of the century, who has grinded to the top, never made a mistake and has no chinks in his armor.

"I will show you my flaws, I'll show you what I've done wrong and what I've fucked up at," says the native of Gary, Indiana, the former steel town best known for producing Michael Jackson. "I don't regret shit, but I'll show you the things I'm not proud of."

Gibbs is joined on Pinata by Mac Miller, Earl Sweatshirt, Raekwon, Scarface, Domo Genesis, Ab-Soul and a host of others in setting his soliloquies of the streets alongside film snippets and dusted funk, soul and prog musical tapestries. While this is the latest in a series of single-artist collaborations for Madlib, after Jaylib (J Dilla), Madvillainy (MF Doom) and the street-centric O.J. Simpson with Detroit's Guilty Simpson, the pairing is unique as it is the first time for Gibbs working with just one producer.

There's also Madlib's own self-awareness of his style as a producer. "My stuff, it ain't fully quantized...it has more of a human feel, so it might slow down or speed up," he says. "So you have to be the type of rapper, like Doom or Freddie, who can catch that, or else you'll be sounding crazy."

Gibbs admits it was a challenge rapping over beats with chops and changes as unpredictable as the man who created them, but says-with conviction and supreme confidence-"I think I did it to perfection."

The perfection is apparent on the album, where Gibbs shifts from textbook lessons in robbing and drugging on tracks like "Scarface" and "Knicks," to perhaps the album's most personal song, "Broken," a collaboration with Scarface, who, along with Tupac, DMX and 50 Cent, make up the rapper's own Mount Rushmore of MCs ("You're getting a hurricane of all those motherfuckers hitting you at once when you listen to Freddie Gibbs," he says). "Deeper," a Gibbs favorite and the third single from the album after "Thuggin'" (2012) and "Shame," (2013) is an ode to hip-hop in the mold of Common's "I Used to Love H.E.R."; "High," featuring Danny Brown, is self-explanatory and just what you would expect from Gibbs, Madlib and one of Detroit's finest; while on "Real," Gibbs addresses an old score just as Michael Corleone settled all family business on baptism day.

It's tracks like "Real" that makes fans believe Gibbs' claim that "I'm about to show niggas how to rap again." And he's just as loyal. "As long as I keep satisfying them," he says, "everybody else is going to fall in line.

As a producer, Madlib, quite simply, is music, and ten years into his career-a time when other artists become comfortable-Gibbs remains restless, focused, with an eye on the competition and their position relative to his ascent. This is because mentally, he's still on the corner hustling, which would be the downfall of the average rapper. Gibbs, however, isn't average.

"When it comes to the nuts and bolts, the nitty gritty of this shit, flat-out spitting verse for verse," he says. "Niggas ain't on my level."