Your big break came when you submitted your music to allhiphop.com, which lead to your deal with Interscope. What happened?

The internet is a great tool and a lot of cats, especially in the Black community, don’t realize it. We’re not educated on that. I took it upon myself to educate myself to the whole internet thing. That is how I would keep tabs on Hip Hop, because I love all kinds of hip hop. I know I wasn’t ready when I first started rappin, once got my music to the point where it was ready to be heard by the masses, I sent them some stuff. I sent them some music and everybody was shocked that I was from Gary, Indiana! Once they put the write up up there on me it was curtains, because most people go to the internet instead the record stores these days. That’s like putting you in front of millions of people. All I can do is take the exposure that I get and if people bite on it they bite on it. I’m going to do what I got to do to make sure that I have the most quality project and not slap some bullshit together. That’s another problem in the game right now. There’s a lot of cats in the game right now just throwing bullshit projects together and not putting out quality music. I have not heard a great album in a while, there is only a few that I can count on one hand. If I put 1000% into the project then the fans can’t do nothing but love it. All Hip Hop showed me love and Murder Dog showed me love too because I was in the issue with Soulja Slim on the cover. I’m doing what I got to do, man!

Who saw you on All Hip Hop?

It was the Joe Weinberger, the same cat that discovered Kanye West. He wanted to sign Kanye to Capitol before he signed to Rocafella. I was doing the mixtape thing and I started my own websitewww.freddiegibbs.com. I was moving my mixtapes off of that. You can only go so far in Gary because Gary is small, so I put my shit out there on the net. Joe heard it and he sent me some tracks to do. I did the tracks and sent them back. After I sent back the tracks he flew me to New York. I did about six songs for my album with them and we sealed the deal like that. I had to work hard because it wasn’t easy to seal the deal. Cats don’t understand that the easy part is getting the deal but the hard part is keeping the deal. I see a lot of cats with deals, but they get dropped. If you are not turning out that product you can get dropped like that. These White muthafuckaz want to see how much money they can make off of you and you are not promised another day in this industry. You have to count your blessings, keep it moving and work hard. A lot of cats don’t want to work hard. They want to be stars, but they don’t want to put in work and I live in that studio.

What is the title of your album?

I don’t even have a working title yet, but it is going to be 18-20 tracks of straight fire. I got an A-List of producers like Red Spyda, Finger Roll, Polo Da Don, JR, Just Blaze, Buck Wild, and the list goes on and on. It’s going to be a real diverse album, but it’s still going to have that Midwest twang to it. It’s not going to be nothing out of the ordinary for the Midwest cats because they will understand it. I think everybody around the nation will understand this album because I’m coming with every point of view for the hood.

Does Dre have anything to do with the deal?

He didn’t have nothing to do with me getting signed, but he is definitely an ally. It is one big family over there and it is a blessing to be at Interscope and to know that you can go to the greatest producer of all time with music. It is a good advantage that I have over other artists.

Your story is almost like a Rocky Balboa story. How did all of this start for you?

I have only been rappin’ for about three years seriously. The thing for me is I didn’t want to get in if I wasn’t going to go all the way with it. I see a lot of cats who get into Rap and just play with it, but I had the determination and the drive to go out and get what I wanted. I felt that my shit needs to be heard on a worldwide level and not just locally. I had bigger dreams. What I did was the mixtapes and I started fuckin’ with Finger Roll and No Tamin’. We are still real tight and we are still doing our thing! I started doing the mixtapes in the streets. The first one was the "Full Metal Jacket" mixtape, and then I did the Volume Two to that and then "This Is My Hustle". Pretty much I just stay more consistent than a lot of rappers in my area as far as putting out good material. Niggaz will forget about you! If you don’t have good material with good value out on the streets then you are just going to be another muthafucka that can rap. There is only one hundred thousand people in Gary and there is probably a thousand rappers, so you have to do what you have to do to make yourself stand out amongst most people in the Midwest.

FOR THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW, PLEASE VISIT:

http://murderdog.com/october2006/freediegibbs.htm

» murderdog.com

TRACKLIST:
1. Live From Gary, Indiana (Finger Roll)
2. Keep It Pimpin (Megahertz)
3. The Girls Love It
4. Give It To Em (Megahertz)
5. Games You Playin (Red Spyda)
6. I'm A Ridah
7. Hoes Betta Recognize w/Turtle Banxx (Finger Roll)
8. Hard Times (Red Spyda)
9. Straight Ballin
10. Drugs
11. Wheelin' And Squealin' (Skit)
12. Scary Gary
13. Things You Do Today
14. Doin Dumb Shit
15. Respect My G
16. Outro
17. I'm Back