This shit raw.
One knock that I saw non-Freddie Gibbs fans have is that he sounds “boring” or “monotonous.” To that I’d usually say they just need to clean their damn ears out. Me personally can count on one hand the Gibbs songs that just straight up don’t like. The rest of them I either love or just don’t hit repeat on like the ones that I love. And, I know at times I can be snobbish when it comes to my favorite rappers, only wanting them to make a certain type of song all of the time. Like, if your songs get me through rough days…I don’t want to hear a party joint from you. If your songs calm me down when n*ggas owe me money, I don’t want to hear a song about tricking in the strip club.
That’s how I feel about Gibbs at times because if you’re really into his music, and have been for years, you can tell which songs on his projects were made with an agenda, whether it was to catch the ear of strip club DJs or “the streets” aka other rap n*ggas. But, this long awaited project Baby Face Killa is probably his most cohesive project to date.
It has raw moments that remind you of Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs. Riding ass gangsta shit that reminds you of MidwestGangstaBoxframeCaddilacMuzik. Direct to the point raps like the ones on Str8 Killa No Filla. Dexterous flows like has on Lord Taketh, Lord Taketh Away. Topical but still interesting songs like the ones on Cold Day In Hell. Dark commentary as heard on MadGibbs.
While the actual story telling that Gibbs demonstrated on his very early work leading up to Miseducation and projects after is more or less replaced by more instances of him rapping to the p*ssy, the songs are still good and serve their purposes.
As far as the production and cameos, Gibbs is slowly scooting into a lane that Bun B created and has pretty much been in by himself over the last decade. Which is one where he blurs rap’s sub-genre lines and goes in over a range of beats ranging from Boom Bap to Trap, with sounds going from feeling high, to straight fie.
BFK also enlists a wide spectrum of features ranging from Currensy to Jadakiss to YG to Jeezy to Spaceghost Purp to Z-Ro. I mean really, how many projects are you going to find where Dom Kennedy and Krayzie Bone are both featured and neither song sounds forced.
The thing I appreciate most about BFK however is that while this is/was supposed to be Gibbs official introduction into the mainstream, Jeezy and DJ Drama didn’t impose themselves all over it. I know people are going to buy the NO DJ version, but really, there’s so little Drama on the tape that you forget he’s a part of it.
But yeah, BFK is pretty dope and even though were pretty deep in Gibbs’ catalog, this may be a good starting point for anybody finally choosing to stop sleeping on him.
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