Freddie Gibbs

Freddie Gibbs, born Fredrick Jamel Tipton in Gary, Indiana, in 1982, grew up on the city's east side. He played football at Ball State University before being expelled, then briefly served in the US Army as part of a pre-trial diversion program, receiving a dishonorable discharge after eight months for smoking marijuana. He began rapping after meeting producer Finger Roll while working at a Gary mall.

His delivery moves between dense, technically precise runs and a flat conversational drawl, and his writing draws on street narratives, family and Midwestern life. He signed to Interscope Records in 2006, but the label dropped him before his debut album could be released, and he spent the following years self-releasing mixtapes, including Full Metal Jackit and Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuzik.

A deal with Young Jeezy's CTE World produced the mixtape Baby Face Killa in 2012, and after leaving the label he founded his own imprint, ESGN, releasing his debut album under that name in 2013. Shadow of a Doubt and You Only Live 2wice followed, the latter recorded with no guest features at all.

His most acclaimed work has come from full-length collaborations with single producers: Piñata and Bandana with Madlib, and Fetti, Alfredo and Alfredo 2 with the Alchemist. Alfredo earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album. The 2018 mixtape Freddie led to a deal with Warner Records, and his albums Soul Sold Separately and You Only Die 1nce followed.

Gibbs has said his father, Warren Tipton, sang with the Chi-Lites. In 2024 he appeared, uncredited on the official release, on the ¥$ track "Back to Me" with Kanye West and Ty Dolla Sign, which reached number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100, his first entry on that chart.