Live From Austin, Texas: Freddie Gibbs' SXSW Trip

The South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas is the perfect place for up-and-coming artists to expand their fanbase. Artists can do tons of shows in a short period of time and reach a large and diverse audience. Enter Gary, Indiana's own Freddie Gibbs—the last of a dying bred of straight-up gangsta rappers who built his buzz from the ground up, mostly through the Internet. So of course Gangsta Gibbs had to hit up SXSW to make moves and rock mics. He managed to take a few pics along the way and got on the horn with Complex to narrate his SXSW experience. Hear Freddie talk about the best tacos in Austin, getting into a fight with security at a club, and take some unexpected shots at a gangsta rapper known for "kissing boys and rocking skinny jeans."

As told to Insanul Ahmed (@Incilin). Photos by Ben "Lambo" Lambert.

Location: The Hilton Hotel
Freddie Gibbs: "That's me, DJ Premier, and Panchi from NY'GZ. I was just in the hotel getting a drink and I bumped into them. Those are my homeboys, not even on no music shit. Me and Premier never even put shit down, I just went on his show and we been homies ever since. I got love for Premier, he's a legend. I try to soak up game from him. And I definitely talk to Panchi when I need some words of wisdom or a good book to read. They both mentors to me."

Location: The Hilton Hotel

Freddie Gibbs: “That's me and Skyzoo. We ain’t did no records yet, but we definitely will. I respect what he do. I’ve known him for a year or two. Coming up in these rap circles we all been in the same areas at the same time. He’s one of the good guys in the industry that I’ve met, but we just didn’t get to work together yet. I was just in the lobby getting drunk and I saw him. That’s all I went down to SXSW to do, get drunk. And rap.”

Location: The Hilton Hotel

Freddie Gibbs: “That’s Chuck Inglish and my best friend Roc. We preformed together later. Chuck is a good guy. We doing some work together and he’s the homie. Like I said, we were just in the hotel getting drunk, bumped into him, and then after that we went back up to the hotel to smoke some weed. And we had some hoes come through to the hotel room. That’s the reason you go to SXSW [for the groupie love]. I loved SXSW.”

Location: Peckerheads

Freddie Gibbs: “I was sweating like a muthafucka. That was at the Smoking Section/Nah Right showcase, so shout out to them. I got to go up there and rip that thang. Me and Chuck was so drunk we were stumbling over our words when we was freestyling. It was fun.”

Location: Peckerheads

Freddie Gibbs: “I had just come off stage and K.R.I.T. had just come off stage and he was sweating like a muthafucka. It was hot as fuck in that bitch. K.R.I.T. from Mississippi and my family from there. K.R.I.T. the homie, we just did some records together.”

Location: Venue 222

Freddie Gibbs: “That’s me with the George Bush mask on stage with the L.E.P. Bogus Boys. I was just acting silly, smoking weed in the George Bush mask. They got a video where they rob a bank with the president mask on, so they had the mask and I threw it on. I was just up there with some real niggas. The L.E.P. Bogus Boys is my homeboys from Chicago.”

Location: 7th and Neches

Freddie Gibbs: “I was probably high as fuck in that photo. I had just did a show and I was outside at the taco stand, Coreanos Tacos. They got the best fucking tacos and they got these bomb ass burritos that got fries in it. I ate there everyday. They just let me do a commercial for them. That’s the best tacos I ever had. Go get they steak tacos, shit is the fucking bomb. [Ed.—Shout out to Complex’s own Bradley Carbone in this pic!]”

Location: A bar

Freddie Gibbs: “That is definitely not orange juice in that bottle, that is vodka. I just met Toro Y Moi that day. My manager Lambo introduced me to him. He told me he liked my work so that was love. I hadn’t known about him, but after I met him, me and Lambo bumped some of his music and I definitely appreciate what they do musically. He’s a cool guy. I’d definitely work with him. If you respect my work, and I respect yours, we can make something. I ain’t just about working with gangsta rappers. And I think I’m one of the last gangsta rappers anyway. One of the last real ones, all the rest of these dudes is weirdos and fakes.”



“I don’t see how you call yourself a gangsta rapper and you wear skinny jeans and kiss boys. I’m not knocking gay people, I know a lot of gay people and they cool. But I rather a person be gay and be out than be gay and try to hide it. That makes me uncomfortable. If you gay, be yourself. Just don’t bring it my way. Google that shit and you’ll see a gangsta rapper that kiss boys and wear skinny jeans. He’s probably one of the most popular guys you know. He might not be the only one who kisses guys, but he’s out there with that. If he kiss boys, then yeah, that’s who I’m talking about. If he don’t kiss boys, then I ain't talking about him.”

Location: Light Bar

Freddie Gibbs: “We was having a ball. I was rapping off the top. I wasn’t even doing a real song or going over a beat, people was just clapping. It was packed in the bar and it wasn’t even a stage, I was just in a crowd. I love shit like that. It was one of my homie's showcases and I just jumped on the mic. People were just showing love. It shows me my work is paying off. When I got to that bar, I found out that shit was open bar. I was like, ‘What the fuck?’ So I drank that Tropicana real quick and started getting more pineapple and vodkas. At SXSW, I was drunk at every show.”



“Everything went over well, except for the fight at the end of the night. We got into a fight at a club, but it was all good, nobody got hurt. We was just at this club, Fuse, and the security guards was just talking shit to my manager. So print this, tell security at Fuse to eat a dick and if I ever see those busters again I’m gonna break they fucking face. They was trying to talk shit to my managers and they two little white dudes. So I ain’t bout to let no 400-pound bouncer pick on my manager. So I stepped in his face like, ‘Bitch, you wanna hit somebody then hit me!’ And he didn’t have the nuts to do it. Hell nah, I didn’t punch him. I’m on probation, I got niggas that do that for me. I’m not admitting to any guilt sir! [Laughs.] You’re not about to get me locked up. [Laughs.] Matter fact, I wasn’t even there. What club? [Laughs.]”

Location: Emo’s

Freddie Gibbs: “I forget the name of the showcase I was doing, but it was dope. It was probably the most packed show of the week. It was about 500 people there.”

Location: 6th Street

Freddie Gibbs: "That's my best friend Roc, he’s retarded. The other people I didn’t know, but Rock was just hugging groupies."

Location: 900 W 12th St

Freddie Gibbs: “Whoever wrote that sign did not graduate sixth grade because they can’t spell teeth. It’s some snaggletooth muthafucka that probably made it. The food was probably good, but I didn’t eat there after I saw that sign. But yeah, I had a successful trip at SXSW. I think I expanded my fanbase and did a lot of great shows. I did four or five shows. I was so drunk, I don’t even remember. I had at least 50 drinks that whole time. I smoked about 100 blunts. I didn’t run through many [groupies] though. Once I get one I like, I like to stick to that one. Maybe one or two, I ain’t hard to please. Once I got a good rotation, I’m good. I don’t just roll the dice with my dick and fuck all the hoes. I’m all about quality over quantity.”