The official return of Freddie Gibbs came in the form of You Only Live 2wice — Gibbs’ opus post-international sex abuse charges. Last year, Gangsta Gibbs was accused and charged of sexual abuse counts by multiple women in Austria, eventually being let free and having all the charges dropped a couple months later.
“I’ve never gotten into any type of situation like this, at all, period,” he told Complex in a new interview. “I’ve never had any type of domestic situation with a female, any type of thing.”
Over the course of the interview, Gibbs detailed the situation in Austria, feeling like he was never going to be able to rap again while in jail, his Piñata follow-up with Madlib, his closing circle of trust and more.
Check out snippets from the interview below.
On writing You Only Live 2wice from jail:
I pretty much wrote everything in my cell in Austria. I just wrote things down, wrote ideas, because I didn’t think that I was gonna be able to rap again. You just never know man, so I just wrote a lot of shit. And when I got home I got production and just went in and pieced it together like a seamstress. Everything that I wanted to say I got it all out in this project.
On keeping You Only Live 2wice short:
I definitely wanted to keep it short and sweet. As great as it was, my last project might have been a tad bit too long. I could have shortened things a little and it would have been even greater. So I was like OK, let me cut the fat and come with a lean, trim project.
On his Piñata follow-up with Madlib:
Y’all pretty much know that I’m about to drop the bomb with this Madlib shit. That’s rumored, you know what I mean, allegedly I’m about to drop that—when Otis is ready then I’m gonna drop that. Other than that I’m just chillin’ right now, I’m enjoying life, I’m enjoying my freedom. I’m not taking a day of that for granted no more.
On returning to America to people doubting his innocence:
I just gotta get my name back. I feel like a lot of people backed off of me because of this shit and that was kind of fucked up. Luckily, by the grace of God and my fans they still support me and they still love me because they know my character. But I had a lot of people—I ain’t gonna say no names, but it was a lot of people that was sayin’ oh yeah “free Freddie Gibbs” and blah blah blah, but then when I came home it was like “oh, whatever.”
On if he’s worried about traveling back to Europe:
Fuck no, I’m goin’ to get my paper back. I don’t have no quarrels about travelin’ at all because, like I said, I didn’t do anything. So I don’t feel afraid or threatened—I think this was an unfortunate situation that caused me to open my eyes and figure out that the people I got around me I don’t need to have around me. I don’t mind travelling. I’m independent so I gotta get on the grind.
On wanting to get into film (and a hilarious tidbit about losing roles to Michael K. Williams):
I go on a lot of auditions, I auditioned for that movie Inherent Vice. I missed the role to Michael K. Williams. Matter of fact, I lose a lot of roles to Michael K. Williams. The film industry is kind of like the music industry—if they’re not gonna let me all the way in then I’m just gonna have to create my own path like I did with music.
