After the success of their 2014 collaboration LP Piñata, American hip-hop artists Freddie Gibbs and Madlib have been pretty quiet. This changed last night when Madlib revealed at a Red Bull Music Academy talk in New York City that he and Gibbs are currently working on a new collaborative album, titled Bandana. Gibbs later confirmed the exciting news on Twitter: 

https://twitter.com/FreddieGibbs/status/729147218423365636?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The interview is not yet available for re-streaming, but Pitchfork recalls Madlib commenting that Kanye West originally auditioned six of his “beat CDs” for The Life of Pablo. Madlib did production for West’s January release “No More Parties in L.A.”, but rumour has it that Gibbs quickly snapped up the remaining beats that went unused by West.

"@FreddieGibbs rapped over everything. @kanyewest waited too long" 😂 #Madlib @RBMA

— Justin Bolois (@JustinBolois) May 7, 2016

The 17-track Piñata LP features contributions from the likes of Earl Sweatshirt, Scarface and Mac Miller, and debuted at number 39 on the Billboard 200 chart. In a press release, Gibbs described the album as a “gangster Blaxploitation film on wax”. The collaboration of Gibbs and Madlib is any hip-hop fan’s dream, although their 2014 album wasn’t a collaboration in the normal sense. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Madlib recalls their creative process: “No, [Gibbs] recorded the vocals on his own. Like, I handed him all the CDs, and he picked out all the beats he wanted, he recorded them at his studio, then he handed those off to me, then we finished it. I would add little things, like these choruses. That's what usually happens: I let 'em record what they want, then I add stuff as needed after that, like extra horns or whatever… I'm usually working on other thangs, you know what I mean? I don't have time to sit there and coach somebody that just already knows what to do, and that's the kind of people I usually work with… I don't want to sit there like a babysitter.” Prior to Piñata, Gibbs and Madlib had already built a steady fan base with their four EPs: Thuggin’, Shame, Deeper and Knicks (Remix).

There's no official release date for Bandana yet, but the Red Bull interview will be available soon through their website here. 

Image: Stereogum