Freddie Gibbs

Fredrick Jamel Tipton (born June 14, 1982), better known by his stage name Freddie Gibbs, is an American rapper.

Gibbs' rap career began in 2004, self-releasing his first full-length project, a mixtape titled Full Metal Jackit, which he followed up with a sequel that same year.

He signed with Interscope Records in 2006 and recorded his debut album for the label; however, its release was cancelled and he was dropped from the label due to executive shakeups.

Around that time, he was signed to Interscope Records and began working on his debut album, but was dropped from the label in late 2006, when the man that signed him, Joe Weinberger, left the label.

Gibbs released his first extended play Str8 Killa in August 2010.

The mixtape received significant coverage from publications such as Pitchfork and XXL, appearing on the latter's Freshman List Class of 2010.

Gibbs later signed with Young Jeezy's CTE World in 2011 and released a number of mixtapes through the label, including his highly acclaimed Baby Face Killa (2012).

He would continue self-releasing mixtapes until 2011, when he signed to Young Jeezy's record label CTE World.

In February that year, Gibbs announced on his website that he had joined up with fellow rappers King Chip and The Cool Kids to form the supergroup Pulled Over by the Cops (P.O.C.).

In October, he released the mixtape Cold Day in Hell, which featured guest appearances from Young Jeezy, Juicy J, and 2 Chainz, among others.

Gibbs and hip hop producer Madlib released their first and second extended plays, titled Thuggin' and Shame, in September 2011 and June 2012, respectively.

The EPs served as previews for their upcoming collaborative album, which was originally titled Cocaine Piñata, and later renamed to simply Piñata.

Shortly after the release of Cold Day in Hell, Gibbs announced that his next mixtape would be a Gangsta Grillz mixtape titled Baby Face Killa.

It was released on September 25, 2012, and featured guest appearances from Pharrell Williams, Jadakiss, Jay Rock, Currensy, YG, and others.

On December 11, 2012, Gibbs announced that he was no longer a member of Young Jeezy's CTE label.

He elaborated saying that there is no beef between the two rappers.

After leaving CTE in early 2013, Gibbs formed his own label ESGN, namesake of his debut studio album released in June of that year.

The second track from the album, "Still Livin'" was featured on the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V's virtual in-game radio station Radio Los Santos.

On May 27, 2013, Freddie Gibbs announced he would be releasing his debut album ESGN (Evil Seeds Grow Naturally) on July 9, 2013, through his own record label of the same name.

The album ended up being released on June 20, three weeks before the planned release date, due to a leak.

In September 2013, Freddie Gibbs and Madlib released Deeper, the final EP from the Piñata previews trilogy.

In addition, he's released four collaborative albums, two with Madlib (as MadGibbs): Piñata (2014) and Bandana (2019), and two with the Alchemist: Fetti (2018) (also with collaboration with rapper Currensy) and Alfredo (2020), the latter of which received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards.

Piñata itself was subsequently released on March 18, 2014.

The album received universal acclaim from music critics with a score of 82 on the review site Metacritic.

It peaked at number 39 on the US Billboard 200 and number seven on the US Top Rap Albums charts.

On July 1, 2014, Gibbs, Young Thug, and ASAP Ferg released a single titled "Old English".

In October 2014, Gibbs and Madlib released their fourth EP, titled Knicks (Remix).

His second and third albums, Shadow of a Doubt (2015) and You Only Live 2wice (2017) were met with positive reception and moderate commercial performance; the latter of which contained no guest appearances.

In March 2015, Gibbs released a three-track EP titled Pronto, which was followed up by his second solo studio album, Shadow of a Doubt, released on November 20, 2015.

Fredrick Tipton was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, and grew up at 17th and Virginia St. on the city's east side.

He played football at Ball State University on an athletic scholarship but was eventually expelled from college.

At the age of 19, he was enlisted into the U.S. Army as part of a pre-trial diversion program when he was on trial for theft and gun charges, but was dishonorably discharged only eight months later after being caught smoking marijuana.

He then began working at a Gary mall, where he met local hip hop producer Finger Roll, who, according to Gibbs, was "the only guy [in Gary] that had a studio."

Gibbs then joined Finger Roll's No Tamin Entertainment crew and began pursuing a rap career.

On a December 8, 2022, the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, Tipton revealed that his father, Warren Tipton, is a member of the Chi-Lites, having joined the group in 2018 as a singer.

Gibbs's third solo studio album, You Only Live 2wice, was released in March 2017.

The only single, "Crushed Glass", was released simultaneously alongside a music video directed by Eric Nelson.

His fourth album, Freddie (2018) received critical acclaim, while his fifth album, Soul Sold Separately (2022) was his first major label project with Warner Records and peaked at number 11 on the Billboard 200.

In June 2018, he released his fourth studio album, Freddie without any prior announcements.

It was produced by Salva and Nick Hook and was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on July 23, 2020, for selling over 500,000 certified units.