On a rainy Sunday night, hip–hop artist Freddie Gibbs hit the stage north of the American boarder in Toronto for his most recent tour titled as Alfredo: The Tour. The rapper wasn’t coming alone as rap producer known none other then The Alchemist was right behind him ready to take his spot at the 1s and 2s at History. The pair are currently promoting their new collaborative album titled Alfredo 2 which was just released in July and has received critical acclaim since hitting streaming platforms. This new project stands as a sequel to the 2020 album Alfredo which was nominated for a Grammy award. The stage set was unique, stylized with a store front and sign that resembled any street corner in America, a sight that is very common in many cities across the continent that contains bodegas and corner restaurants. The visual that the backdrop produced definitely helped to propagate the atmosphere of music in an urban environment that seems to go hand in hand with hip-hop. Opening up the show was a few great supporting artists, the first of which was European Jazz artist known as Sven Wunder. The musician would enter the stage to play a mostly instrumental set along with his live drummer, Sven handled the keyboard plus vocals. The two piece would go on to perform an impressive set playing some great tunes that I would describe as hip-hop beats with no turntables. Who needs to sample when you can perform anything you need live.
The next and final supporting artist on the night was Mavi out of North Carolina. Representing Charlotte, Mavi is making his name known in rap music by dropping some big tunes and frequently works with the likes of Earl Sweatshirt and of course The Alchemist. His soulful and heavily lyrical style makes for a prefect combination with production from The Alchemist and this tour. Mavi’s latest album titled Shadowbox is out now on all streaming platforms so make sure to check it out asap as we highly recommend it. When it came time for the main event of the night at History, The Alchemist would make his was out of the store front door that now had the neon “Alfredo’s” sign turned on foreshadowing the music the audience was about to be serenaded with. Next Freddie Gibbs would hit the stage running, sporting his custom Karate gi that had multiple patches stitched on including the official tour logo on the back, “ALC” on the side plus the album name “Alfredo” as well as others. It is obvious that Freddie Gibbs is fond of martial arts but on this night, he also advised the crowd that he was a fan of baseball and frequently asked the crowd for updates on the the Toronto Blue Jays game who were playing that night against the Seattle Mariners in game 6 of the ALCS. Later on, the rapper asked the crowd if they wanted them to just perform tracks from the album Alfredo 2 or the first Alfredo record as well which everyone happily cheered for. The night’s set list consisted of a steady mix of both Alfredo records as just mentioned, with some notables being “1985”, “1995” and “Mar-a-Lago”. 
Another highlight of the show occurred during a Freddie Gibbs wardrobe change when The Alchemist decided to spin some instrumentals from his catalogue such as the Nas classic “Tic-Toc” and the Jadakiss 2001 banger “We Gonna Make It”. Towards the end of the performance Gibbs would climb to the top of the set to perform giving the appearance that he was rapping on the roof of Alfredo’s restaurant. The concert as a whole can be regarded as thorough as it gets for hip-hop shows in 2025. I think everyone in attendance went home happy getting to see all of artists on the card as each one provided musical continuity from one to the next. For the fans that didn’t make it out to this epic live tour, I hope we successfully captured the experience in this article and exclusive photo gallery just below. We recommend following Freddie Gibbs @FreddieGibbs and The Alchemist @AlanThechemist on Instagram to stay up to date on both artists as they continue to make big moves and release new music and other content.
Article & Photos By Kyle McNeil (@trueaspectmedia)
