Othony Kaytano here, the iInternet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Freddie Gibbs album, You Only Die 1nce.

Yep, here we have a brand new LP from Grammy-nominated rapper and songwriter, Gary, Indiana native, Mr. Freddie Gibbs. Truly a rapper's rapper, a rare breed on the current day hip hop scene. Someone who, for years, has been bringing impressive lyrics and skilled flows to pretty much every project he's made, and he's also maintained an impressive level of commercial and critical success while keeping his career on a pretty independent track.

Now, it has been a minute since Freddie's last full-length studio album, $oul $old $eparately. It was a concept album where Freddie was found on many a track exploring the various temptations and excesses of his growing fame. Themes that were explored through the album's lyrics as well as the record's very big and trendy feature list. A series of voicemail sketches, too, throughout the record that showcased some of the entertainment connections Freddie has made in recent years, too.

$oul $old $eparately was really a big record for Freddie, truly his most ambitious in a solo capacity. Because if you know anything about Freddie's catalog, you remember some of his biggest and most successful projects to date are ones he is teaming up with a singular producer across the record, be that legend such as Madlib or The Alchemist.

But yeah, he's pretty much going it alone on this new one and not even really trying to hit us with a bunch of big name features, too. While in that sense, this is a very different project from $oul $old $eparately, it's still, I think, a continuation of many of that record's themes. You could even go as far as to consider it an afterthought or a low following the high of his last project.

So yeah, you could say Freddie's last project was a self-aware meditation on indulgence, whereas this one centers more around the regrets and reservations that he has toward the life he's been leading as of late, as well as the music industry he finds himself surrounded by.

Now, truth be told, the tracklist and overall experience of this record is not as grand or layered in experience as $oul $old $eparately, which could be a good or a bad thing depending on what you like about Freddie's music. Because if you're looking for something that is a bit more direct to the point, almost grimy as if it's a mixtape but still has a certain level of commercial cleanliness to it, this is going to be the record for you.

With that being said, though, I still think it's the case that when Freddie is left completely on his own when it comes to choosing his own beats, he tends to favor some bland instrumental palettes. But I suppose it's arguable that the writing and rapping quality is so good that it makes up for that much of the time. That and the genuinely thoughtful and personal commentary scattered across the record that sees Freddie getting introspective, reflecting on his current mental state as well as the trajectory of his career. There are bars on this thing where he's reflecting on needing to disappear from the limelight for a while. Others where he talks about his success and popularity having put a target on his back. He also claims the emotional pain he feels on any given day that's being bottled up inside causes him to favor a lot of tough talk and misogyny in his everyday life and content.

Even deeper into the project, Freddie seems to have things to say about the rash of sex crimes that seem to be getting dug up in the entertainment world right now, talking about seeing figures like P. Diddy go down, having looked up to him at one point as a big influence in hip hop culture, a mogul, a mover and shaker.

While through a lot of this record, Freddie seems to recoil at much of this stuff in disgust, through multiple skit moments on the album, he's constantly being contacted and tempted by the devil. Of course, he's played by Slink Johnson, who played as Jesus on Freddie's last record through a few skits. It should also be mentioned that he once played Black Jesus on the very underrated Adult Swim show of the same title.

But I digress. The content on this record sees Freddie alluding to just a desire to change, to avoid pitfalls he's hit in the past, just focusing more on those who care about him, his life, as well as music, as opposed to the criminal activity that he built a brand around over the years. I mean, he's not called Gangsta Gibbs and Freddie Cain for nothing. And narratively, this is for sure a move that is commendable and admirable on Freddie's part, one that he even hesitates to embrace on a few bars of the record, wondering if fans and other rappers alike will still fuck with him if he changes his message or goes about things in a different way, content-wise.

But beyond those light reservations there, Freddie doesn't really dive into the reasons behind his slight possible change of heart going forward here, which makes a lot of this commentary, unfortunately, read as a little surface level, even if it is coming from a serious place.

It's even harder to take seriously, considering there are some deep cuts on this record where Freddie does drop some pretty savage and ruthless commentary. One line in particular sticks out where he talks about not deleting things he said or music he's put out there, regardless of how confrontational it is, like J. Cole did.

And what also rings as hollow on this record are some of the comments Freddie makes on the very turbulent and public relationships he has been engaged in romantically as of late, which seems like something that is ridiculous to bring up in a review, sure. But if you follow Freddie's work or social media exploits on any level, that most likely means you're going to know who he's dating or whether or not he has a baby on the way. It's to the point where there are people on the internet who are more aware of that stuff than they are whether or not he has a new project, which is unfortunate and embarrassing.

Freddie doesn't really go that deeply into his regrets around these types of relationships and interactions, outside of feeling like he was too desperate or eager or willing to commit to certain women. Maybe the answer going forward is to be more distant and ruthless, more of a player. I don't know, that just might not be the takeaway.

As long as I'm complaining, I think the biggest musical misstep on the project has to be "Walk it Off", because this track sees Freddie giving us some understated, bland, average, very melodic triplet flows, a la Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, though I wouldn't say he's doing them quite as well.

But yeah, for the most part, this project is decent. It's pretty good. It seems like Freddie is dropping some lyrical gems on some okay beats as he plots his next move and maybe gives us a bit of a peek into some some life choices he has been mulling over in his mind as of late. Like I said, again, this project feels very much like an epilogue of sorts, like a transitional moment, something to hold us down until we get something bigger down the road.

I think it reminds me maybe most of his 2017 project, You Only Live 2wice. I don't think it's incidental, obviously, that the titles between that record and this one are obviously connected and referencing one another.

So yeah, while not his best work, I don't think it's trying to be. Just seems like he wanted to get out there some post-album ponderances and give us a taste of where he might be going next on his next major studio album. I'm feeling a strong 6 to a light 7 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, Freddie Gibbs, Forever.