Freddie Gibbs $oul $old $eparately Review: The Whiff of Excess

Even with all of its expensive-sounding beats, the album is frustratingly unambitious.

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Freddie Gibbs, $oul $old $eparately
Photo: Nick Walker

There’s a luxurious ambiance to Freddie Gibbs’s debut studio album, $oul $old $eparately, which exudes opulence at just about every turn. The production choices are uniformly lavish, as in the elegantly plucked strings that distinguish both “Feel No Pain” and “Gold Rings,” or the backing lo-fi jazz instrumentation that energizes “Blackest in the Room.”

A throbbing horn riff tears through opening track “Couldn’t Be Done,” its grandeur offset by a Kanye West-style looped soul sample. Bolstered by a smattering of minimal hi-hats and stray piano keys—a series of contemporary textures that keep the track from feeling too antiquated—the opener asserts an impression of triumph before Gibbs can even start rapping.

The album’s excess extends to how Gibbs presents himself: as an always adroit yet equally blithe presence who will eventually deliver a boorish joke (or worse, a belabored outro-track skit featuring podcast personality Joe Rogan). Still, Gibbs contains multitudes, and can churn out sharp observations when pushed: The James Blake-produced “Dark Hearted,” finds him quickly shuffling through past traumas—police brutality, alcohol addiction, emotional neglect—with a despondent tone to his rapid-fire delivery, gravely reflecting that an “empty stomach” will give “you the heart to go do a homicide.” And on “CIA,” he rechristens the acronym for the titular organization into the “biggest daily blows” to the Black community: crack, Instagram, and AIDS.

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Occasionally, Gibbs delves into his many interpersonal conflicts, albeit in ways that allow him to avoid explaining himself fully. On the mournful “Grandma’s Stove,” he half-heartedly defends himself from accusations of parental negligence by claiming “those that know me know I love my babies.” Elsewhere, he makes peace with longtime enemy Jeezy on “Rabbit Vision,” expressing remorse for his brash, juvenile handling of their beef—“Could’ve talked it out, but I spoke out, I let it get to me”—which, while a level-headed response, is described in such vague terms that you can’t help but wonder what he thinks he’s actually apologizing for.

Even with all of its guest spots and expensive-sounding beats, $oul $old $eparately is a frustratingly unambitious effort. A plethora of phoned-in verses from rap’s elder statesmen underscores the problem: For one, Rick Ross overburdens “Lobster Omelet” with the same type of empty victory-lap raps that have oversaturated his last few releases.

But it’s Gibbs’s team-up with Pusha-T on “Gold Rings” that encapsulates the album’s issues most cogently. The very first word that either of the coke-rap veterans utter, right after a series of “yeah” adlibs, is “cocaine,” accompanied by comically exaggerated sniffing sounds. Along with most of $oul $old $eparately, it carries a decidedly perfunctory whiff of excessive grandeur.

Score: 
 Label: Warner  Release Date: September 30, 2022  Buy: Amazon

Paul Attard

Paul Attard is a New York-based lifeform who enjoys writing about experimental cinema, rap/pop music, games, and anything else that tickles their fancy. Their writing has also appeared in MUBI Notebook.

3 Comments

  1. Wow, you would have been better off saying, “I hate Freddie Gibbs, I hate Hip Hop music, long live Taylor Swift!”

  2. Listened multiple times and fail to find a song worth replaying. Maybe the hidden track with Scarface. The interludes are godawful. The beats are leaden. Even the Alchemist and Madlib ones. Respect Gibbs but the rabbit thing gets tiresome. Eh, can’t win em all.

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