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"Featuring Danny BrownMac MillerEarl SweatshirtRaekwonfaceDomo GenesisAb-Soul, Polyester the SaintBJ The Chicago KidBig Time WattsG-WizCasey VeggiesSulan, Meechy Darko & Freddie Kane Freddie Gibbs is the product of violentdrug-laden streets but unlike most rappers with similar resumeshe brings the block to the booth without inhibition or an exaggerated rap persona. Pi¤ataa 17 track collaboration with producer Madlibis the best distillation yet of his transparent approach to making musiccombining an at times stark honesty with electrifying talent as a lyricist and performer. Pi¤ata is "a gangster Blaxploitation film on wax," says Gibbswho came up on the streets of GaryIndianathe disregarded city previously best known for producing Michael Jackson. Here he is joined by Mac MillerEarl SweatshirtRaekwonfaceDomo GenesisAb-Soul and a host of others in setting his soliloquies of the streets alongside film snippets and dusted funksoul and prog musical tapestries. While this is the latest in a series of single-artist collaborations for Madlibafter Jaylib (J Dilla)Madvillainy (MF Doom) and the street-centric O.J. Simpson with Detroit's Guilty Simpsonthe pairing is unique as it is the first time for Gibbs working with just one producer. On Pi¤atawhere Gibbs can shift from textbook lessons in robbing and drugging on trackslike "face" and "Knicks," to perhaps the album's most personal song"Broken," a collaboration with facewhoalong with TupacDMX and 50 Centmake up the rapper's own Rushmore of MCs ("You're getting a hurricane of all those motherfuckers hitting you at once when you listen to Freddie Gibbs," he says). "Deeper," a Gibbs favorite and the third single from the album after "Thuggin'" (2012) and "Shame," (2013) is an ode to hip-hop in the mold of Common's "I Used to Love H.E.R."; "High," featuring Danny Brownis self-explanatory and just what you would expect from GibbsMadlib and one of Detroit's finest; while on "Real," Gibbs addresses an old score just as Michael Corleone settled all family business on baptism day. As a producerMadlibquite simplyis musicand ten years into his career-a time when other artists become comfortable-Gibbs remains restlessfocusedwith an eye on the competition and their position relative to his ascent. This is because mentallyhe's still on the corner hustlingwhich would be the downfall of the average rapper. With Pi¤ataGibbs confirms that he is anything but average."