Freddie Gibbs > N.W.A? (According to LA Weekly)

The above tweet exchange happened two days before the Freddie's LA Weekly cover came.

And while I’ll still continue my trek through all 80 (!!!) of the songs on his new mixtape, The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs, and will still get excited whenever I get my hands on Jeff Weiss’ work (I’ve been a fan of his for years), I still can’t help but feel super disappointed that Freddie Gibbs of all people made the cover of LA Weekly.

Let’s be clear, I’m not mad at Freddie. Get your shine. I’m not mad at Weiss either. It was a great story that was reported really well and written eloquently (as usual). It’s just that if it's true that in LA Weekly’s 29-year history they haven’t put a single rap act on their cover since N.W.A. in 1989, it's kind of crazy that when they finally do acknowledge the genre again with a cover nod it’s for a dude from Gary, Indiana (not named Jackson). Gary, Indiana? Seriously?

To add insult to injury, I noticed that the article was listed, naturally, in a section labeled “Los Angeles Music.” My eyes burned a hole in those words for a minute as I thought about the protest in Los Angeles held last week in front of Power 106. Artists picketed in front of their offices on Black Friday to call attention to their lack of support of L.A. artists. Then I thought about the Snoop video I blogged about earlier this week, where he aired out L.A. DJ's who are usually not from the city and don't support local artists—like Skee (who happens to be affiliated with Gibbs).

“Let me tell you why we fell off,” said Snoop. “For one, L.A. radio don’t support us. We got DJs out there that don’t come from L.A., that don’t support our music, that don’t give us love, don’t give us a shot. They’d rather play Drake, Lil Wayne, whoever else is hot. No disrespect. Hey, I love they music. That shit is hot. They bangin. They got hot records. But fuck that, them niggas ain’t from the West Coast. So, nigga, they should be on the back burner.”

In my first blog post on XXLmag.com, I wrote about my desire to even out some of the regional bias by giving the West Coast some well deserved attention. A promise I’ve kept thus far whenever I saw it was merited. I just wish everyone in the west was doing their best to look out for their own as well. —Brooklyne Gipson