Decked out in a custom yellow karate gi, prolific Midwest rapper Freddie Gibbs was just two songs into the latest stop of his 17-city “The Last Rabbit Tour” when he decided to come clean.
“My bad. I came up here kinda f---ed up. Inebriated,” he said. “We in this motherf---er high as f---. I don’t even know what we did. We did some Las Vegas drugs. Some shrooms. But it’s all good. We gonna get through this Freddie Gibbs sh--, ‘cause this is a psychological project. This ain’t just a motherf---in’ show.”
The most famous musician from Gary, Indiana, not named Jackson, Gangsta Gibbs is known for quality live performances. But from the caverns of Mandalay Bay's House of Blues on May 30, he waded into far less conventional territory that included leading the crowd through at least 10 chants of “f--- the police” and taking two extended intermissions—one planned and the other decidedly not.
It all started making sense midway through, amid a run of favorites from his Grammy-nominated 2020 album, Alfredo.
“Two weeks ago, I came to Vegas and I had to watch my daddy die,” he told the packed house. “This my therapy. Y'all my family.”
These were the words of a man working through grief in real time. And despite the heavy revelation, he went on to hit his next track—the Tyler, the Creator-assisted “Something to Rap About”—with the gusto of someone who’s been here before.
“Crime f---in’ pays, but once you paid, you gotta pay the man. Straight survival, right hand on the Bible, I won’t take the stand,” he spit through laboring eyelids.
For decades, Gibbs has navigated the line between commercial darling and underground icon at his own pace. His tactical blend of the gangsta and alternative rap subgenres has spawned some of the most beloved collaboration albums of all time—from teaming up with Madlib on 2014’s Piñata and 2019’s Bandana to channeling beats from legendary producer The Alchemist on the critically acclaimed Alfredo and its 2025 sequel, Alfredo 2.
Gibbs was more man than machine on this night, but he also didn't seem to mince a single syllable. He opened with the iconic guitar sample from LL Cool J's hip-hop classic "Rock the Bells” on Alfredo’s “1985” before meandering through early hits like “Thuggin',” and “Crime Pays.” But the bulk of the set—15 of 23 songs—was dedicated to albums with noodles on the cover.
After a planned intermission led by his touring partner, DJ Thurst, Gibbs returned in another custom fit—a red leather racing jacket and helmet. Promptly removing the latter, he quipped about how they’ve “got me in this Eddie Murphy Raw sh--” before mounting a rapid-fire run through Alfredo 2 cuts like “Skinny Suge II,” “Mar-a-Lago” and “Lemon Pepper Steppers.”
Just after rapping “I'm makin' the rules, bitch. Feelin' good, feelin' great,” on “Gold Feet,” the momentum shifted once more as Gibbs shuffled off the stage a second time. DJ Thurst kept things going the best he could over the course of the next seven minutes before Freddie rejoined him for another run of five songs from Alfredo 2.
That leg culminated with an unquestionable highlight in “Ensalada,” a characteristically confessional track in which Gibbs ruminates on life in the streets of Gary—the same urban grind he escaped long before earning his first Grammy for contributions on Leon Thomas' Best R&B Album, Mutt, earlier this year.
“I reminisce on what this sh-- did done to me,” he raps before featured-artist Anderson .Paak’s voice cements the earworm hook: “Help me get away from this godforsaken place I'm in. No flatter, pay the driver to go the opposite way to Vegas.”
That potent moment came at the perfect time. Whether it’s the struggles he experienced living in Gary—which at one point was America’s murder capital during his formative years—or the more recent death of his father, Gibbs has a knack for soldiering his way through misfortune and coming out on the other side loaded with a fresh clip of artistic ammunition.
This was no different. Following the first of two encore selections in “Big Boss Rabbit,” Gibbs finally addressed the last elephant in the room.
“It was hard coming out here to do the show,” he said. “But I did it and we did it and we did it together. I love y’all.”
The genre’s most resilient late bloomer proceeded to sucker-punch his way through “Gang Signs” as the crowd matched him verse for verse.
While Las Vegas frequently makes appearances in his rhymes, this was Gibbs' first show here since he delivered a far shorter set at the Day N Vegas festival in 2021. And although this particular outing was a bit of a wild ride, whatever he was on was ultimately no match for the resolve of the Big Boss Rabbit himself.
