Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Bandana

Bandana is Freddie Gibbs & Madlib’s second collaborative project, released on June 28, 2019, following five years after the duo’s 2014 debut album, Piñata. First teased during a Red Bull Music Academy talk by Madlib, the album is set to be the second of a planned trilogy (Piñata, Bandana, Montana) and began life as Freddie was facing jail time in Austria for trumped-up rape allegations. He recalls in an interview with Dazed the feeling that he went through in writing the album: I was potentially about to do ten years in prison for a crime I didn’t commit, I knew if they had me locked in a cell, they could do absolutely anything to me, so I memorized all the beats Madlib made for Bandana and started writing to them down in my cell. I wanted to rap with the kind of energy like this might be my last album. The duo’s hard-pressed efforts would lead to a 46-minute excursion towards themes of friendships, vaccinations, jail time, education, drug dealing, and multiple other themes that