As you may have heard, Gary, Indiana has an opening for musical torchbearer. Perhaps it’s no coincidence then that Freddie Gibbs, who quietly signed an ill-fated Interscope deal a few years back, has emerged in the past few months to become the first rapper from Michael Jackson’s hometown with a national profile. I hadn’t heard of Gibbs myself until he showed up on a remix of Devin the Dude’s “Stray” that made the blog rounds earlier this summer. Intrigued by Gibbs’ no-frills rhyme style and his decision to hop onto an obscure album track from Landing Gear, of all things, I immediately downloaded The Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs, the mixtape where the track originated. While Miseducation didn’t quite live up to my expectations, it showed enough flashes of brilliance to keep me open to any new material.

Gibbs’ latest tape, the DJ Skee-hosted Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuzik, is what I and others probably hoped Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs would be. While it’s got its skippable moments (could have done without the 10-minute outro track), it’s easily one of the year’s best mixtapes and shows impressive growth. Midwestgangstaboxframecadillacmuzik is full of disarmingly bleak material but not without it’s life-affirming points: Z-Ro, Trae and Goodie Mob (and Z-Ro in particular) are some useful points of references here. I’m particularly partial to “County Bounce” which flips an oft-used sample from Delegation’s “Oh Honey” (the basis for Three Times Dope’s “Funky Dividends” and Total’s “Kissin’ You” (Remix)) into a Screwed-up slow burner with the tape’s strongest hook. “How I Feel” ups the darkness quotient to its highest levels while speaking to Gibbs’ Midwestern roots—it’s got more than a slight Bone Thugs edge to it.

Of course, Gibbs’ music is made more compelling by the fact that he’s from Gary, a city whose unbroken bleakness is perhaps outmatched by only Camden, NJ. Noz at Cocaine Blunts has a great primer on Gary’s rap history, including interviews with Gibbs and Grind Family’s Will Scrilla who, like many of Gary’s other would-be rap players, has had his career cut short by a lengthy prison sentence, in his case for voluntary manslaughter.

Miseducation of Freddie Gibbs highlight “What It Be Like” dates back to 2007.

“From tha G,” a rare freestyle on a 2Pac beat that’s worth listening to