Though he made his name in the rap game, Freddie Gibbs says he’s ready to leave the genre in favor of his R&B roots.
The Grammy-nominated rapper spoke about his career change in a recent interview with Revolt TV, saying his forthcoming SSS project may serve as his rap swan song.
“This might be one of my last rap albums,” Gibbs said during a recent tour stop. “I ain’t gotta rap no more, man. After SSS, I’ma show y’all … I’m ’bout to bust out with an R&B album. R&B is what I started out doing before all the rap shit. Now, all you n***as just wanna make me rap all day, and I don’t wanna rap. I wanna go back to my roots. I tried to get signed as an R&B singer in 2004, but every label in the world denied me. So, I had to do rap to get in the door.”
Gibbs made similar claims via Twitter last week, when he suggested his rap pursuits were heavily motivated by money rather than passion.
“I tricked y’all n***as into thinking I was a rapper,” he jokingly told Revolt. “And I learned to rap so good — better than everybody else, it’s crazy. So now, I’m ’bout to come back to this R&B. And all the n***as that didn’t wanna do no songs with me, like Miguel and all them n***as, they’re gonna be like, ‘What’s up, Gibbs?’ And I’m ’bout to be king of this shit.”
If Gibbs ultimately goes through with his plans, he’ll likely leave the rap game on a strong note. The 39-year-old artist said his SSS effort is full-fledged rap album stacked with big-name collaborations. During an interview with Mixmag this year, Gibbs revealed some of producers who were expected to contribute to the album. We’re talking Pharrell, Madlib, the Alchemist, Hit-Boy, and Mike Will Made-It, just to name a few.
“It’s another album of the year,” he told the publication. “… It’s gonna be the best produced album that I ever made.”
Stay tuned as more information about SSS becomes available.
