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 would emerge from the album in subtle and explicit ways.

The album would prove to be the highest-charting record from the duo’s (and of Freddie’s) career, peaking at #21 on the Billboard 200 while receiving critical acclaim across multiple websites and media organizations.