You can’t say that Gibbs wasn’t thorough with his follow-up. It would be hard to bonus anything more onto the deluxe album anyway – it’s already 17 tracks long and clocks in at well over an hour.
There’s not a single Madlib track here unless there’s a SUPER deluxe edition with more bonus joints that I’m not aware of at press time. I’ve got some bad news for fans of “Piñata” though – Madlib is conspicuous by his absence on “Shadow of a Doubt.” It’s not just that he decided ahead of time not to do the whole album this time around and shared the load with other producers – it’s that he didn’t do ANY of the album. It doesn’t do justice to any part of the song to quote the bars – the whole thing is machine gun funk you’ll live and die for. It would be easy to criticize Mikhail for jacking the overjacked “Nautilus” for the track, but this may be literally the last tag team capable of bringing something new to the loop and keeping you mesmerized by their performance. When Gibbs wants to flip a fast flow that’s entirely within his forte as well, which makes a track like his “Extradite” duet with Black Thought on “Shadow of a Doubt” a true treat. The point here is that Freddie Gibbs comes from a place of authenticity when he talks about having to hustle, and backs it up with a ton of charisma and lyrics that are more clever than simply rapping about trapping. Signing with Interscope Records was supposed to be his ticket out of that life, but this is the time we cite that old “industry rule #4,080” made famous by Q-Tip on “ The Low End Theory” album: “Record company people are shadyyyyyyyyyyyy.” It took nearly eight years to rebound from his first deal’s f-ery, and if he did some dirt to make ends meet in the interim I doubt anyone could blame him. In fact it’s more or less the basis of his credibility – the fact he did a lot of messed up things in Gary, Indiana while on the come up. The good news is that Freddie Gibbs knows more about DOPE than most emcees. There’s only one problem with releasing an album of the year candidate – you’re expected to achieve that same level of dope the next time out.
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