Late last month, Freddie Gibbs & Madlib released one of 2019’s best albums so far, Bandana. Made under dire circumstances in real-life, the Keep Cool/RCA Records album’s visuals have been documenting “Freddie Caine” trying to exit the dope game.

In late May, “Crime Pays” presented Gibbs trying to maintain a straight life, at least on the surface. Modeled after 1970s grind-house cinema montages, it showed Gangsta Gibbs raising his zebras and tending to a farm in the mountains, thousands of miles removed from the nightmares found in the street. The Anderson .Paak-assisted “Giannis” picks up on that idea.

Freddie Gibbs Sheds Tears In A Deeply Emotional Interview With Madlib (Video)

A flashback shows Gibbs’ entrance to the game in a transaction-gone-wrong. Now a retired general, he returns to Miami, Florida. There, he links with a former associate on a jet-ski. The scene plays to Godfather 2 and Casino, with some comedic relief riffing from both men.

Although Gibbs swears that life is behind him, “Giannis” shows that there is truly no way out from the perilous dr*g game. Both videos in the developing storyline are directed by Nick Walker. Neither Madlib nor Paak appear in the visual.

Freddie Gibbs Draws Depictions Of Bandana Songs & He Goes Hard In The Paint (Video)

Earlier this month, Freddie Gibbs teared up during an interview on Real Late with Peter Rosenberg. “This [Bandana] album right here, man, this album was a form of therapy. It was therapeutic. I said a lot of things on this record that I maybe, probably wouldn’t have said if I wasn’t facing 10 years in prison. That’s why this album is my baby, because it got me back to my babies,” Gibbs said while choked up. In June 2016, the veteran Gary, Indiana native was wrongfully accused of r*pe by a woman in Austria. The charges reportedly forced Gibbs and his staff to hire a team of 11 lawyers before an acquittal in late 2016. The MC has said he wrote much of the Pinata follow-up while locked up in Austria and France, and separated from his family.

This Friday (July 26), Bandana‘s vinyl edition will release. The album featuring Yasiin Bey, Black Thought, Killer Mike, and Pusha-T debuted at #21 on the charts. It marks a new pinnacle for both Gibbs and Madlib. Several songs (including “Giannis”) from Bandana are on the official Ambrosia For Heads playlist.

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Press photograph provided by Run Music.