Alfredo

Personnel: Freddie Gibbs (rap vocals).
Audio Mixer: Eddie Sancho .
For Freddie Gibbs, Alfredo follows the Madlib collaboration Bandana, whereas it adds to a prolific 2020 for Alchemist, landing after The Price of Tea in China (another meeting with Boldy James, featuring Gibbs) and LULU (an EP with Conway the Machine, featured herein). The concise and highly concentrated set also picks up where the L.A.-based Gibbs and L.A. native Al left off with Fetti, their summit with Curren$y. Headier and more reflective than that 2018 release yet laced with some drums with churn and bump beneath Gibbs' double-time wit, it reinforces the reputations of both artists in the hip-hop underworld. Whether Alchemist transmutes glacial boom-bap and trawling acid nightmares or spiritual soft rock and tear-jerking soul, Gibbs makes it all work to his benefit. He gets his deepest and most confessional over the ghostly lurch of "Skinny Suge," accepting of a vengeful fate and lamenting his place in the supply chain that led to his uncle's overdose death. At the same time, he's still not above florid enumeration of his gains, comparing his lifestyle to that of the Chicago Bulls during Michael Jordan's rookie season, taunting hometown police, or observing his influence on a younger generation of rappers. In one verse of "Baby $hit" alone, he's toilet training his son, manufacturing dope for his clients, and philandering with visiting "ball-player baby mamas" who are in town while their men play the Lakers. There's a specificity to what the pair create here that makes some of the guests seem like outsiders. Rick Ross' presence is unnecessary, and Tyler, The Creator, however vital, is miscast. Conversely, Griselda's Conway the Machine and Benny the Butcher enter the world of the top-billed artists with a more compatible mix of grievous realism and opulent fantasy. ~ Andy Kellman