He is one of the world’s most dextrous rappers, a verbal colossus bound for the big time. Over margaritas, he reveals how he managed to escape life as a drug-dealer and take rap to new heights
Freddie Gibbs tried therapy, but only lasted three sessions. The 40-year-old rapper would have had plenty to discuss: the toll of selling drugs to finance his early mixtapes. Dropping out of university. Swerving gang conflict. Losing his first record deal in 2006, then another in 2012. And – of which more later – being acquitted of sexual assault charges in 2016. But the real reason he couldn’t hack it?
“She was too cute,” he says, of the Italian therapist he briefly saw. “Like, I can’t be in here looking at this lady. I’m trying to get therapy!” He smiles but doesn’t laugh, committing to the joke. Now, he contends that “that shit wasn’t for me. I decided I had to keep doing my music instead, bruh.” Rap, he realised, helped him work through what was on his mind. “My life is an open book through the music,” he says, adding that he calls the world his therapist as a result.
