![]() “Lately” starts similar to “Narcos”, suggesting a song that might be melodic and soulful, before pausing, and then the bass kicks in and Gibbs raps an aggressive, driven verse. “10 Times”, with hip-hop veterans Gucci Mane and E-40, is one of the album’s smoothest songs and all 3 rappers deliver brilliant verses. “Packages” is undoubtedly one of the hardest songs on the album, albeit with a hook that could perhaps grate on some. Nevertheless, there are some great tracks as the album progresses, such as “Mexico”, where the verses are almost like a hook they’re so melodic. The start of the album is undoubtedly the strongest half, and sadly it trails off slightly towards the end as the songs become somewhat more forgettable. ![]() And it is certainly one of the stand-out tracks of the whole album, as Gibbs and Black Thought of The Roots trade verses over a stuttering piano-led beat. The track “Extradite” with Black Thought of The Roots is perhaps most similar to the style of Piñata. Gibbs’ lyrics evoke a kind of dark humour, as he says “Teacher told me go get a job, I said where the scale at?” You can see why this song was released as the first single it gives the uninitiated listener a great introduction to Gibbs’ style. The haunting piano melody to this song starts paired only with a solitary snare drum, before expanding into the complete beat as the sample from The Wire finishes. The single is accompanied by a typically dark video which provides a hyper-stylised insight into his past life. ![]() Gibbs continues the stellar start to the album by sampling the critically acclaimed TV series The Wire for the track “Fuckin’ up the Count”, the first single that was released when he announced the album. The result is one of the catchier and more accessible songs on the album. Gibbs’ mastery of flow is shown on the following song, “Careless”, where he demonstrates his ability to rap over the drum beat, before doing it twice as fast in the pre-chorus, and then finally switching into the melodic flow that compromises the hook. It is one of my favourite songs from the album, and one which epitomises the hard hitting, yet often minimalistic, vocal-driven style of Freddie Gibbs, where his voice and the beat are often so in time as to be inseparable. In the following song, “Narcos”, he opens with the line, “Dope game hard, rap game, rap game easy than a motherfucker.” Contrasting against the struggles mentioned in the previous song, this one is more triumphant in comparison. The album opens with “Rear View”, with the wavy vocal sample at the onset suggesting a much different sound to follow, before heavy 808 bass kicks in as Gibbs aggressively starts the album, reflecting on a past in which he sold drugs, took drugs, and was in and out of prison. “Shadow of a Doubt is without a doubt one of the stand-out albums of 2015.” Shadow of a Doubt is something much darker, meaner, and grittier than Piñata often was. The result is an album that is stylistically very different to Piñata and is more in tune with Gibbs’ earlier career. Whilst in Piñata one could clearly hear the influence of producer Madlib, with many of the songs sampling obscure 70s soul and funk tracks, in Gibbs’ latest release, Shadow of a Doubt, more creative control returns to the rapper. It became Gibbs’ most commercially successful album to date, gaining the 33-year-old rapper notoriety as a hard-hitting lyricist with the ability to flow over a wide variety of beats, exemplified in songs such as the cheerful, easy-listening “Harold’s”, and the brilliantly titled “Shitsville”. His 2014 collaboration album Piñata, created with veteran producer Madlib, was released to widespread critical acclaim. Gary, Indiana native Freddie Gibbs, despite being relatively unknown to the majority of hip-hop fans, has been consistently releasing albums and mix tapes for the past 10 years, and has recently been gaining wider exposure within hip-hop.
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