Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist @ The Union 11.01.2025

Producer and DJ The Alchemist and rapper Freddie Gibbs on stage at The Union Event Center in Salt Lake City on Nov. 1 for their Alfredo II tour.

The Alchemist (left) and rapper Freddie Gibbs performed all the hits from their collaborative albums, Alfredo and Alfredo II, during a defiant show at The Union in Salt Lake City on Nov. 1. Photo: Derek Brad.

Image: Derek Brad

Concert

The last time I saw Freddie Gibbs, it was a hot July afternoon in Chicago in 2015 during Pitchfork Music Festival. Gibbs was allotted a daytime slot, despite the recent success of Piñata, the album he made with producer Madlib, which their tour was promoting. What stands out most from that performance was the line of police officers standing with sour mugs and arms crossed as Gibbs repeated a “Fuck the police” chant while sweating profusely from the stage.

A lot has changed in the decade that’s passed since Pitchfork 2015. Carried by the success of Piñata, Gibbs seemingly locked in. My guess is he realized he might be one of the last of the old guard, as the genre which saw something of a renaissance in the 2010s slowly waned into the place where we see it now: For the first time in 35 years, there are no rap songs in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100.

Gibbs now carries the torch with his Wu Tang Clan-adjacent brand, despite what the charts say. The 2020 album Alfredo was an instantly celebrated effort with producer and DJ The Alchemist, a showcase of talents with several notable features that melded the crate-digging stylings of The Alchemist and the simultaneously deliberate and laid-back delivery characteristic of Gibbs. This year we were graced with Alfredo II, a sequel that expands on The Alchemist’s sample-heavy production style with a more Eastern aesthetic, providing abstract backdrops to Gibbs’ at times loose, at times rapid and successive, but always confident flow.

The Alfredo II tour poster depicts Gibbs’ hand grasping the globe. The Alchemist and Gibbs aren’t officially on a world tour, but they’re campaigning for another Grammy bid after Alfredo was nominated in 2021 for Best Rap Album, and the show that came to The Union had a thoroughly global feel. The first indicator was the on-stage set design, a boxy, two-level imitation of an inner-city Asian food joint with a neon “Alfredo’s” sign, providing something to look at while a DJ prepped the swelling, buzzing and semi-surprisingly youthful crowd for the night to come.

Swedish Eastern jazz instrumentalist Sven Wunder took the stage first, setting up in front of synthesizer and keyboard, while his partner Josefin Runsteen added a hip-hop element with live drums. The vibey, psychedelic, lounge lizard-esque and cinematic music that Wunder is known internationally for emanated from the stage and mixed well with the dark, purplish-red lights and the smoke that began to fill the air, setting an open-ended mood for the evening.

Rapper MAVI came out next and wasted no time working the crowd, calling out to the audience to get their hands in the air, then proceeding to rap with emotional intentionality over some of his most popular and heartfelt songs. He enticed the crowd with a “Fuck ICE” chant, among others, and came out for an encore where, upon his return to the stage, MAVI promised he’d only do another song if a mosh pit opened up — which it did, in earnest.

After another brief DJ break, the lights in The Union went down. A palpable silence ensued, which erupted into hollering as The Alchemist sauntered out onto the stage in his signature look: baggy t-shirt, baseball cap and gold-rimmed spectacles, puffing intently on something that glowed bright red in the darkness of the stage. He stepped behind the booth and began with the Alfredo single “1985,” followed quickly by Freddie Gibbs, who stepped out of the glass door of the Alfredo’s Restaurant set onto center-stage.

The night ensued with a mixture of hits from Alfredo and Alfredo II, with Gibbs delivering his bars word-for-word in his gravelly, hard-edged timbre, pausing only to hype up the audience, The Alchemist, and himself. At one point he disappeared, and The Alchemist went to work, chopping it up on the decks and spinning some dirty, vibey R&B bars of his own, only for Gibbs to reappear atop the restaurant set with mic in hand, rapping “Skinny Suge II” from Alfredo II.

For an hour and a half, an undeniable element of defiance permeated the room, which was long beyond full. Perhaps the show’s highlight was when, after about an hour of encouragement from Gibbs, The Alchemist — once an underground rapper himself — stepped out from behind the booth to rap. I’m not sure how many people can say they’ve seen The Alchemist rap live, but anyone who was at The Union that night now has a treasured memory that calls back to his early beginnings.

Between rapping through all his recent hits, Gibbs went a capella multiple times, most notably during a rendition of his massively popular single with Schoolboy Q, “Gang Signs.” But what brought the widest smile to my face was each time that Gibbs led the crowd in “Fuck the police” chants throughout the night, hearkening back to his past amidst a celebration of how far he’s come with the help of friends like The Alchemist. I, for one, am just glad that some things don’t change.