After
Piñata, his 2014 collaborative release with underground producer
Madlib, proved that
Freddie Gibbs could play the left field like Ted Williams, the Gary, Indiana rapper joined Bay Area producer
DJ Fresh, aka
the World's Freshest, for the short but sweet bit of old-school boom-bap. Boom-bap and bitch slaps, actually, as
The Tonite Show rolls unapologetically hard on numbers like "Bitches, Dope, and Dollars" (a
Bone Thugs-like nocturnal track that advocates the ski mask way) and "I Be on My Grind" (imagine
Twista's "Overnight Celebrity" redone for the cloud rap set). "Keep It Gangsta" is at the thematic heart of it all as
Gibbs flows with that
2Pac bounce and "ride or die" mentality, while "G Like That" funks like
Zapp and clubs like the
Death Row label in their heyday. Add "Pussy Got Slap" with slang king and Bay Area Don
E-40 as special guest, and
The Tonite Show seems much more
DJ Fresh-driven with all this West Coast business, but it's entirely fair, as this is an entry in the producer's collaborative Tonite Show series with
Gibbs following in the footsteps of
Mistah F.A.B.,
the Jacka,
Shady Nate, and others. Also of note is the short run time as the ten-track release gets knocked down to a count of seven once the intro, outro, and interludes are removed. Still, those looking for
Gibbs to return to that streetwise gutter music will certainly enjoy this short blast, and if golden age G-funk makes it all the sweeter,
Fresh has a bag of West Coast tricks filled with enough
DJ Quik and
Dr. Dre references to keep those ears ringing. File this next to
Snoop Dogg and
Dam Funk's 7 Days of Funk and then celebrate the birth of the Indiana-Cali connection. ~ David Jeffries