Al, did you make the beats with Freddie and this project in mind?
Alchemist: When I make beats, I always have different people in mind. But with Freddie, once he goes, you got to get out of the way. Itās really about picking the right beats. We just sat with beats. Then, it was easy, I canāt even lie. That shit was very easy.
Freddie Gibbs: Once we did
Fetti with Curren$y, I knew that I wanted to do my own joint.
Fettiās a classic, too. I was like, āMan, if I could bring that same magic for a whole joint myself, itās going to go off.ā
Fetti was the motivation. Like I said, ever since āScottie Pippen,ā I been motivated to do this with Al.
How was making this different than creating Fetti?
Freddie Gibbs: No disrespect to Curren$y, but itās not a collaborative effort with another rapper. Alās going to be Al, whatever heās on. I just had to be great on the raps. I think that these are some of the best raps I ever did, because Al put me in a space where the raps come effortless. I donāt feel like Iām doing no work when Iām doing this shit. Itās just smooth, itās easy.
I wanted to steal
the ā$500 Ouncesā record from Westside Gunn. Thatās one of the first records I did. Then Westside took that joint and I was like, āAll right, cool.ā That motivated me to keep rapping good.
I wanted to go through one of the interludes, to get an idea of how you guys work. Right before āScottie Beam,ā you used a snippet of this Gil Scott-Heron interview where heās talking about āThe Revolution Will Not Be Televised.ā āScottie Beamā has a bunch of lines that play on that song title. Did you guys find the interview after you did the song or before?
Freddie Gibbs: I was reading Gil Scott-Heron while I was making the album. Then I was just at the house high, watching YouTube. I was like, āAll right, Iām going to jam this way on this record.ā
Soon as Al played me that beat, I knew it was for Rick Ross. I was like, āThis is Maybach music, nigga, all day.ā I was getting on a track with one of the best rappers. I was like, I got to come a certain way to make him even interested in the record. Thatās why I came with that line and repeated it, and gave it a theme: to set it up for Ross to kill that shit.
Freddie Gibbs and Alchemist just released a new album, 'Alfredo.' They sit for an interview and tell us how it all came together.
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