I'm one of the few that comes from this vantage point: I never tried to get a record deal.
I've always loved making independent music.
I almost never pitch myself. Me being an independent producer, never having a manager and never being signed, I pretty much just did my own thing: go out and search for the new talent, and when the new talent blows up, it just kinda brings everyone else to me.
From the age of 14 to about 20, I bombarded record companies and DJs with my demos. I was desperate to get it out there. Most of the time, I got nothing back.
'Love Tattoo' I recorded without a record company. I'd gotten turned down by the record companies - they said they didn't get me, which is fine, I suppose.
People talk about the pop part - they don't talk about me being an independent artist. I made it look easy, that's the problem!
I'm not ruling out music forever. I'd love to do that, but if I ever did, I don't think it would be with a record label or anything like that. It might even look like me finding a band and kind of playing in bars.
I've been trying to do this music stuff and work it out for so long... I was like, 'Let's do it for ourselves.' All these songs, we've travelled the world - no record label, nothing. We just did this for us, but the love is very appreciated.
I didn't sign a record deal; I didn't do any of that. I made my record independently, and I went out and hit the road in a van.
I don't have a manager who's secretly on Interscope. I'm the complete opposite of an industry plant.
It's always flattering when someone covers a song. I mean, when you're a young band, and you're unsigned - to think that someday people would want to cover one of your songs - it's just mind-blowing.
I ain't on no major. Everything independent. Either way it goes, I am doing me, and I am doing Freddie Gibbs.
I feel like I just wanna go back to being more underground.
To be fair, I did come out of nowhere. 'Ghost' was the first song I ever did in a studio, my first time ever cutting a professional vocal.
Every single thing that I was told that I couldn't do without a label - get in the charts, get on to the Radio 1 playlist - I've done.
Finally I'd found this way where I didn't need a record label; I didn't need to wait for some phone call to tell me, 'Go and do it'. It's like, I'm going to get up with a bag of CDs and an amp and my guitar and make it happen for myself. That was such a liberating feeling, and I think it was the start of everything.
I started as a writer and when I sent my demos out everyone wanted to know who was singing and if that person wanted a record deal.
Well, me and Freaky been knowing each other for a while, and he was always playing crazy music in his room, but he would never release it. He's, like, the most underground rapper I know, and he's crazy talented.
It's not like I set out to be 'the indie guy.'
I want to be role model for people to be like, 'I don't need a major label to be a successful artist and to have a successful song.'
I don't have a record deal, I'm not looking for one, I don't have a manager, I'm not promoting anything.
I made this record without a record label.
I'm an independent. I've signed with no label.
I never solicited a major label and I certainly wouldn't now.
I wish I started out as a solo artist.
