Alfredo (album)

The title is a portmanteau of the Alchemist and Gibbs' names.[1] The album cover, designed by Vlad Sepetov, shows a hand puppeteering a Fettuccine Alfredo dish. It draws similarities to the logo of renown crime film franchise The Godfather.[2][3]

On May 27, 2020, Gibbs and the Alchemist announced the release of new music via social media, before confirming the collaborative project shortly after.[4][5] The announcement came alongside the option for pre-ordering the album in digital and physical format, including a comic book stylized based on the album.[6]

The first single, "1985", was released a day before the album, alongside an accompanying music video directed by Nick Walker.[5][7]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Album of the Year	87/100[8]
Metacritic	91/100[9]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Clash	9/10[10]
Exclaim!	9/10[11]
HipHopDX	4.5/5[12]
The Line of Best Fit	9.5/10[13]
Loud and Quiet	8/10[14]
Pitchfork	8.0/10[15]
Tom Hull	B+ ()[16]

Alfredo was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 91, based on five reviews.[9] Album of the Year assessed the critical consensus as 87 out of 100, based on seven reviews.[8]

Jack Bray of The Line of Best Fit praised the album, stating, "It's an incredibly tight record packed with stellar performances, production and presence throughout. The blood, sweat and tears of hip-hop run through the album, but Gibbs has once again redefined what that means."[13] Joe Svetz from HipHopDX enjoyed the album, saying, "Alfredo is a master class in rap — 35 minutes of cutthroat bars that feel like 15, leaving you hungry for another course. In a world where the basic function of waking up feels like a chore, Freddie Gibbs and Alchemist have served up a dish of quick comfort food packed with essential nutrients included."[12] Reviewing the album for Clash, Robin Murray stated "Alfredo excels on every front, a record that fuses a thirst for fresh innovation with a depth of love for hip-hop and rap music that is almost unparalleled. Pretty much an instant classic, it's the sound of Freddie Gibbs finally bursting free, working with tour de force production to surge past expectations and claim his place at the absolute pinnacle."[10]

Clayton Tomlinson of Exclaim! said, "The current king of rap manages, yet again, to offer a searing insight into his life, past and present. The songs on Alfredo are fun even when the themes aren't."[11] Pitchfork critic Matthew Ismael Ruiz said, "Gibbs skates over these beats, effortlessly gliding in and out of the pocket. Even the moments of stark contrast feel natural."[15]

In the United States, Alfredo debuted at number 15 on the Billboard 200, earning 30,000 album-equivalent units in its first week,[21] making it both Gibbs' and the Alchemist's highest-charting album to date.[2]

All tracks produced by The Alchemist.

Notes

• "Baby Shit" is stylized as "Baby $hit"

Sample credits

• "Scottie Beam" contains a sample of "Alone (Reprise)", performed by Wee and written by Norman Virgil Whiteside.
• "Something to Rap About" contains samples from "On Love", written by D. Walker.

Credits adapted from Freddie Gibbs' social media.

• Ben "Lambo" Lambert – creative direction
• Rich Gains – engineering
• Vlad Sepetov – art direction
• Mike "Deadly Mike" Del Mundo – original illustration
• Eddie Sancho – mixing
• Joe Laporta – mastering
• Vic Wainstein – additional engineering (track 6)