Freddie Gibbs has revealed an interesting connection to Michael Jackson, who apparently was his father’s talent show nemesis when they were kids.
Gibbs, who hails from Michael Jackson’s hometown of Gary, Indiana, recounted the rivalry during a recent appearance on the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
“Yeah, Michael Jackson used to beat my daddy ass in the talent shows,” Freddie Gibbs said. “My dad sing, my dad in The Chi-Lites, matter of fact. Him and Mike the same age, so they was always bumping heads in the talent shows and Mike would fuck that n-gga up. I’m like, ‘Fuck you thought, n-gga?'”
During one of their matchups, Freddie Gibbs says his father had to face his rival with the full support of the other members of the Jackson 5.
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“And I’m like, you up there solo,” he added. “He got Tito, Jermaine… They in step, they got moves, they got Joe, you know what I’m sayin’? They had Joe pushin’ them n-ggas. You ain’t had nobody, you just had yo mama telling you ‘Yes my baby!’ Mike had a team, n-gga! He couldn’t fuck with Mike.
He continued: “I love you Dad, but you know you can’t fuck with Mike. Mike was fuckin’ you up, your whole life. We be watching Michael Jackson, my dad like, ‘Turn that muthafuckin shit off.’ He be listening to it on the low though. That n-gga love Mike.”
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Despite his father’s success as an artist, Freddie Gibbs said he never considered a path in the music business as a kid. In fact, he told Barnes and Jackson when he first joined the football team at Ball State University in Indiana, he didn’t have much of a plan for the future at all.
“I walked on to Ball State to play football, really to be honest,” Freddie Gibbs shared. “And I was trying to go other places, but that shit wasn’t working. But I really just wanted to go to school with my friends and just keep playing sports. I didn’t really have no direction then, man. I was so young, I ain’t know what I wanted to do.
“I definitely didn’t plan on ending up being a fucking rapper,” he said. “I definitely didn’t see that shit in the cards for me at that age. I just wanted to play sports, fuck with girls and smoke weed and shit. It took me a long time to know where I wanted to go in life, I tell a lot of you guys that. Shit, I’m probably just now at this age discovering who I truly am and where I wanna go. Not just career wise, but as a man period.”
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After making his acting debut in 2021’s award-winning independent film Down With The King, the Alfredo rapper may be pivoting towards new career goals sooner rather than later.
During a recent Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Twitter, Freddie Gibbs suggested that $oul $old $eparately will be his final album. Answering an eager fan’s questions about a rumored follow-up to 2019’s Bandana, he said his highly anticipated collab project with Madlib might not happen.
However, the claim coincided with a separate interview Gibbs did with Bootleg Kev in October, where he indicated that an Alfredo 2 might potentially be in the works with Alchemist.
Freddie Gibbs also hinted that he may have joint project on the way with Tyler, The Creator, who he praised for being fearless and “amazing” on a recent episode of the Rap Caviar Podcast.
Click here to watch Freddie Gibbs’ full All The Smoke interview.
