Working together for the first time in long-play album format, rapper Freddie Gibbs and DJ/producer Madlib’s Piñata is the final product of four years’ work between the two. The result is a concise album that attests to the talents of both artists, accompanied by an unforgiving dark vision of the street life stemming from their personal experiences.
Thematically, the album is a bare-all account of Gibbs’ life in the streets of Gary, Indiana. Nothing is sacred – murder, slingling drugs, robbery – and he holds nothing back in telling his story. Gibbs’ deep, urgent voice and impeccable flow work perfectly in tandem with Madlib’s evocative, carefully composed production style. These two talents, in turn, maintain a cinematic style that feels like a particularly powerful gangster movie at its best moments. That quality is one that separates a hardcore album like this to other works in the same vein – it neither condemns nor condones the hustler lifestyle, but shows it how it is in a purer sense.
The album’s first half has some of Madlib’s best work in years, and Gibbs’ flow and wordplay has consistently improved since 2010’s fantastic Str8 Killa EP. Gibbs’ grim and powerful stories are told against a backdrop of funky 70s tunes and concise drum work. Songs like “Deeper” and “Bomb,” the latter featuring Wu-Tang’s Raekwon, are absolutely huge sounding in voice and beat. A vicious diss track towards Jeezy, “Real,” marks the middle of the album.
While the production and theme is consistent throughout, it begins to falter a tiny bit in the second half. The atmosphere becomes monotone in its reliance on the aforementioned 70s sounds and moods, but it picks itself up for the album’s closer, “Piñata,” a posse cut featuring Domo Genesis, G-Wiz, Casey Veggies, Sulaiman, Meechy Darko, and Mac Miller. The song features a strange minor-key instrumental that sounds much like a Wu production, and is certainly odd in comparison to the rest of the album. If the album sounds like a movie, as mentioned before, then this is the “what just happened?” kind of ending. Its ambivalence doesn’t quite wrap the album up well, and it seems like their intent for such an ambivalent tune is unclear, but it is an interesting choice nonetheless.
On the whole, the record is a rewarding listen and Gibbs’ honesty is refreshing and consistently fascinating. With no shortage of good features (Danny Brown and Earl Sweatshirt, among others) and pleasing production by Madlib, this is an excellent starting point for what will hopefully be a long-standing collaborative effort.