Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist’s South Side Ballroom Show Had Us Wanting ‘Alfredo 3’

At this point, Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist have spoiled us rotten, but we’re not complaining. Their first project together, Alfredo, was a 35-minute masterpiece with no skips, something that likely helped a few of us hold onto our sanity when it released in 2020, amidst what seemed to be the end of the world. Without exaggeration, it’s one of those records that’s so good it almost doesn’t even warrant a sequel, because how could you top that?

Regardless, the pair returned in July with Alfredo 2, a follow-up that can match track by track with the original and, over time, may even prove to be the better record.

“Ayo Freddie, I might be biased, but I think Alfredo 2 is the best shit that came out this year,” The Alchemist said.

Judging from the energy in the room Friday night, the fans at South Side Ballroom certainly agreed.

“Ayo, I might be biased, but I don’t give a fuck about no other shit,” Gibbs responded.

The first Alfredo has been out for five years now, but the tracks are still so fresh that it barely feels like any time has passed at all. So far, Alfredo 2 feels the same, if not better; for every “Scottie Beam” and “Baby Shit,” there’s “Ensalada” and “Mar-A-Lago” to match. At the end of the day, Gibbs’ cutthroat lyricism and The Alchemist’s bottomless bag of beats is a killer combo that’ll be damn hard to match going forward.

The bill had a nicely varied lineup, making it a can’t-miss night that covered multiple genres. Of course, there was Gibbs and Mavi for hip-hop fans, but also Sven Wunder, an accomplished composer’s exploratory passion project, and Jalen Ngonda, an old-soul singer who’s blown up over the last two years. The variety makes sense given The Alchemist’s diverse palette and the love Gibbs has shown to artists in other genres like Clairo.

Sven Wunder kicked off the night with a vibrant, groovy instrumental set. He manned two keyboards while Josefin Runsteen murdered a four-piece drumset and vocalized along. The setup was simple on paper, but the pair quickly cemented themselves on stage and shook everyone loose for the following acts.

Following a career as an accomplished jazz musician, Swedish composer Joel Danell began creating music under the Sven Wunder moniker in 2019 to delve deeper into Eastern European music. His tracks are so audibly gorgeous they could easily fit into a Tarantino flick, but vibrant and busy enough not to get skipped when they come up on shuffle.

Next up was Mavi, a rapper from North Carolina who possesses an impenetrable aura of positivity. Mavi’s voice carries the same youthful, upbeat energy of a kid excitedly waiting to open presents on Christmas day, which makes his darker, self-reflective lyrics hit that much harder.

He started a “Fuck ICE” chant during the second-to-last song, and the audience proudly joined in. He wrapped the set with “Self Love.”

The 25-year-old artist broke through in 2019 with his album Let the Sun Talk, which introduced fans to his deeply personal bars on songs like “Self Love” and his overall versatility within a track on “Eye/I and I/Nation,” where he tackles three uniquely different flows over the same song. His last two albums, Laughing so Hard, it Hurts and Shadowbox, have shown Mavi progressing in the best way possible. He’s leaned into the more melancholic, expressive side of hip-hop instead of just picking a spacy, washed-out beat and rapping his ass off without saying anything substantial, like a spitter of his caliber probably could.

Ngonda came on next and sent everyone into a frenzy with his sky-high voice. Alongside a three-piece band, the D.C.-born Daptone singer went into the lively “That’s All I Wanted From You,” then eased into “So Glad I Found You,” a slower love song.

Much like Thee Sacred Souls or Black Pumas, Ngonda sounds like he got in a cab sometime in the ‘70s and was magically transported to the future with that same old gold sound. His voice can go from serene to showstopping in an instant, and the instrumentation backing him up is divine.

Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist Are Alfredo

The Alchemist took the stage to an onslaught of applause, then Gibbs ran out in a blue gi to perform “1985,” followed by “God is Perfect” and “Scottie Beam,” before diving into Alfredo 2 with “1995.” The crowd could almost be heard chanting over Gibbs during “Mar-A-Lago,” and he paused “Lemon Pepper Steppers” to encourage some rowdy fans who formed a moshpit.

“That’s crazy, y’all doing that rock and roll shit, that’s beautiful,” he said afterwards. “Do it again.”

Gibbs is truly a rapper’s rapper; his powerful, gruff voice carries a self-assured swagger, and he delivers punchlines like a postal worker gunning for a raise. He can rip multiple flows over seemingly any kind of beat, from riding the laid-back groove on “Nightrider” with Tom Misch and Yusseff Dayes, to a complete tempo-change mid-song on “Fake Names” off Piñata, or his relentless showing on “Till’ The Angels Come,” one of his earlier tracks with The Alchemist on Domo Genesis’ No Idols. The 43-year-old MC from Gary, Indiana, has a deep discography and a wealth of feature verses, and there aren’t many skips.

Fans matched bar for bar with Gibbs as he rapped “Baby Shit” a cappella, then joined right in with the first of many “Fuck police” chants of the night.

After nailing a seamless transition from “Look At Me” into “Feeling,” Gibbs sat back as The Alchemist built a beat live, starting with a sloshy hi-hat, snare and bass. “We need a bassline, right?” he asks as he adds in low, DOOM-esque horns and some blaring alarms. Next, he mixed in cuts from his 1st Infantry’s “Tick Tock” and “We Gonna Make It” from Jadakiss and Styles P before wrapping with his iconic “Our boy Al, everybody’s pal” tag.

It gets harder by the year to keep a tally on the number of artists The Alchemist has collaborated with. He’s basically the Charles Xavier of the rap game, slowly recruiting new members and using his otherworldly penchant for production to bring out the best of each one of his gifted youngsters. This year alone, he’s dropped Life is Beautiful with Larry June and 2 Chainz, produced Erykah Badu’s grand return with Abi & Alan and is gearing up to release the first Mobb Deep album in more than 10 years.

The seasoned vet’s experience reflects in the way he works a crowd. He bobbed up and down fervently as he queued up clips and yelled along with each track to hype the audience up. Of course, he had to give Texas some shit, too.

“Let’s just see where y’all are at real quick,” he says before singing: “The stars at night are big and bright,” and of course, everyone in South Side Ballroom clapped, stomped and happily finished the verse. Gibbs followed suit and asked about the Cowboys, but was instantly met with a bunch of boos.

While the setlist mainly consisted of tracks from the pair’s two joint albums, Gibbs also sprinkled in some older tracks like “Crime Pays” and “Gang Signs” to test his fans.

“I’m trying to fuck y’all up with the old shit, but y’all motherfuckers know the words,” Gibbs said after the crowd rapped “Crime Pays” word for word.

Gibbs took another breather as The Alchemist took the mic to rap his verse from “Ferraris in the Rain,” a song from his solo album, The Genuine Articulate. Gibbs joined in to rap his verse from “Ferraris in the Rain Part 2,” and the two performed side-by-side for the rest of the track.

While an Alfredo 3 might be too much to ask for, what we do know is that Gibbs and The Alchemist are on a generational run and have already given us enough classic music, both individually and as a duo, to earn their spot on any hip-hop head’s playlist. Anything else from here is just gravy.

See more photos from Friday’s show: