HOW WE FEEL ABOUT 'UNFINISHED BUSINESS' A WEEK AFTER RELEASE

It's been a known fact that we needed more Fredo this summer and it's safe to say he hasn't disappointed us so far. Join us today as we take a look at his new album 'Unfinished Business' as we talk through our first listen, his leading singles, daily duppys, fan comments, and our final rating of the project.

We've been waiting all summer for Fredo to come in and shut it down. Today he might have done just that, but first lets work on our timeline and roll out for this album.

January this year saw Fredo make his first 2023 appearance with the track ‘Dave Flow’, inspired by Santan Dave, whom we had seen through the music video. We’ve all seen Dave and Fredo on several tracks in the scene, such as “Funky Friday”, “All I Ever Wanted”, “Money Talks” and “In The Fire”. Without Dave even making a rap appearance on this track, it shows us another side to their friendship that we never knew we needed.

The track peaked at position thirty in the charts and had racked up 6.3 million YouTube views. With some amazing feedback in the comments, such as, “Fred is too cold with it, the visuals and lyrics go craazy, can’t wait for the fire he’s about to drop this year”, “Can’t lie this is the most I’ve seen Fredo smile! It’s a vibe still just goes to show he’s happy where he is in life now. But I will say this Fredo has always stayed true to himself, he’s never made a single commercial song and he still rakes it in" and, “Levels every time, been following since get rich or get recalled, so mad how far you come, respect”.

At the beginning of June this year, we saw his second album single 'Everybody Knows', a track dedicated to being a businessman and a real trapper, being someone every knows as a boss in all aspects of life. The track itself, his flow, and the beat were all very 50 Cent US rap influenced, which could have been risky for the rapper as we know and love him for the dirty London street talk, however, he styled it very well. Since the release, the music video has been taken down and replaced with an audio only version of the track with just over one hundred thousand views, which is quite low for the artist. It also peaked at number seventy six on the Official UK Charts.

In between then and his next single, Fredo had met up with Stormzy to feature on track 'Toxic Trait', this link up was very needed in the scene and helped Stormzy come back on his rap journey as we've recently heard him steer away from the rap sound. This track currently sits on just over two million views on YouTube and charted at the time, peaking at eleven, and staying in the charts for six weeks.

Since then, just three weeks ago, in the middle of July, Fredo announced a track with Tiggs Da Author titled 'Scoreboard'. Firstly, Tiggs is very well known in the scene for working closely with Nines, someone we were meant to be getting a joint Fredo project from, is this is a hint that something is coming soon or just a sick link up?

This track went down a treat with the fans as we've been waiting for a Fredo drop for some time. The comments on his Instagram preview to the music video alone went crazy, however, some weren't too happy with his writing ability, with comments like "Fredo been lazy with writing and just re using old freestyle bars", and "Why do I feel like I’ve heard most of those bars already did he use bits from his freestyles?". Over on YouTube, fans were showing Fredo so much love, we particularly like a comment from @irh1738 which read "Never been a big fan but over the years Fredo has become someone you cannot ignore. Rap aside guy is moving up levels and got a lot of respect the way he is moving". Showing that even if you're trying, you cannot escape Fredo, especially after he drops his next single for the album.

On Sunday evening we were hit with a nine minute 'Daily Duppy' from the star, with it's own title 'My Story' and it's very own black and white background, away from the normal black and yellow, something that has only ever been done by fellow rapper Chip back in 2020 for his 30th birthday. The fact the rapper went on one beat for a whole nine minutes spitting the most street hood bars was incredible and it did not get missed by fans. In five days alone the track has hit 1.1 millions views and a whole load of love in the comments. Some of our favourites read "No matter what track, Fredo just absolutely kills every song, they just get harder and better. You can’t not respect the talent and passion, one of the greatest to do it", "No cap. Best daily duppy ever made. This man is a living proof that with hard work and persistence you’ll succeed", and "Whats better than 9 minutes of fredo? 18 minutes of fredo when you get it on the rewinddd".

We spoke to our good friend C4Truth, a huge Fredo fan, to see what he thought of the track, when asked he had said "Absolutely Crazy" following it up with "Fredo is definitely one of the best in scene right now, definitely refreshing from the Dave x cench takeover". Although we agree with everything he's saying, we believe the track should have been split into two tracks to separate the sound, after about six minutes we were getting bored of the same flow and beat, when we asked C4 what he thought of the nine minutes, he said he would have preferred some different beat changes and a bit more production in the engineering, rating it an overall nine.

Which brings us to now. This Friday, we saw the release of his new album 'Unfinished Business', of which had fifteen tracks, four of those being his singles. The role out for this album was last minute in terms of promotion in our opinion as Fredo has been quite quiet online up until the final week before release via his Instagram stories. However, the album cover has been seen on multiple windows of his contributions to Kick Game stores.

Upon first listen we have some very clear favourites that go straight into our playlist, and some ones that may not reach a third listen. It seems to be common theme online that the favourites aside from the singles previous to the album are 'Need His Album', 'Quit Rapping', and 'Make Mistakes'. However, we love it when Fredo gets in his feelings on a track, so for us 'Woo' has to be up there in our favourites for this album.

The album is full of deeper meanings, word play, and a whole lot of flexing, for example, 'Everybody Knows' is a perfect track for the rapper to show off. We particularly like bar "Only alphabet I know is VV and S" as he shows off the fact that he knows VVS diamonds and jewelry better than anything else in life, he's quite literally covered in diamonds. However, if you want a bit more of a personal track, when you listen to 'Woo' you're definitely feeling Fredos pain as he raps about losing his best friends through the gang life that they're stuck in. For example, "All this pain I got, I need to cry, Instead, I hold it deep inside, and only get to release the relief when others grieve and die". Some parts of this track you can clearly hear the pain in the rappers tone of voice, we need more of the deeper side of Fredo.

Over the past week we've been keeping on top of the fan comments, facts, and figures to come from the album, especially over on Twitter. Some of which read "Fredo's pen game has gone up a different level on Unfinished Business. Great body of work, probably his best to date imo". The numbers for this album really do speak volumes about how it has been received online as the album sat at number eleven on the album charts. Now we need to bare in mind that this album was his first independent album since 'Get Rich or Get Recalled', so for an artists to even get near this place in the charts is a huge achievement.

LinkUpTV came online and released 'Fredo - Unfinished Business (Review) The Ctrl Room' and we watched along to share their views for anyone who hasn't watched the video as of yet, Malaika and Margs come together the share their opinions, the first being when Malaika had said that the first song and the second song had actually if anything put her off the rest of the tracks, and that the album "doesn't really go anywhere", however, some believe that Fredo putting his Daily Duppy as his first introduction track really set the tone. They also believe that he needs competition otherwise he's going to remain the same with the same flows and subjects. At the same time they speak on this level of rapping from Fredo is better than anything he's released yet, however, production wise he's dropped a lot since his album 'Money Can't Buy Happiness". Some also believe that he shouldn't be talking about such violence like he does as he's progressed away from the streets, on the other had Malaika had said that he talks violence still then he lets everyone know that he isn't going anywhere and is very much the same Fredo.

On the evening of release Fredo was seen featured in a Chicken Shop Date, of which is currently sat on just over eight hundred thousand view on YouTube. The video itself was entertaining to watch with some moments that made us laugh, Fredo really shined in this environment and would love to see more like this from him, Amelia was also able to work around anything he said, which is what she does best as a host in any video. We learnt a lot about the rapper that we may not have known before hand too, for example, his relationship with his three-year-old daughter, his feelings towards Egypt, and his experiences in being romantic in relationships with women. The comments on this video have very mutual feelings, some reading "Fredo kills me, I am a business man. Straight serious, with moments of interest. He likes what he likes, knows what he knows.... NO gimmicks... He finished me when he said you're always pushing it ameila", "I always find hum unintentionally funny", and "yo fredo has come a long way, when it comes to letting his personality through, i remember watching his interviews from back then and it was like trying to get blood from a stone".

The day after the album was released, Fredo announced a meet and greet on Harrow Road. Harrow Road is a road in West London that is very close to Fredo, anyone that hears the street name automatically links it to the rapper, so for him to do something with his fans in a place he loves must have been iconic for him. Via the advertisement, on his Instagram, he had listed a range of different things happening that afternoon, some being giving out free meals, free school supplies, and free groceries.

Fredo was then also seen featured in a video with GQ on a series they do with celebrities titled '10 Things Fredo Can't Live Without', having watched the video, Fredo continues to show the fans more of his personality as he tells us more stories that are fresh in our minds. We hear about his more essential items, from his phone to peppermint tea and toothpicks, we hear about how Fredo had lost his Nandos blackcard a while back as he shared it around in his community, being taken from him as someone with the card at the time was rude to a staff member in store. We also learnt more about his skincare routine as he explains that the only thing he uses on his skin is Diprobase, a cream that he was shown when in jail that has now changed his life, helping his skin.

Since the album has been released for a week, we can now confirm that 'Unfinished Business' came in at number nine on the official UK album charts, selling 5,933 copies. 78% of those were from streaming, 2% from downloads and the remaining 20% from physical buying. All facts from @opinionatedyute via Twitter. The album also debuted at number one on Spotify UK album charts.

The only thing we need to see from the rappers incredible collection of post-album events is a tour, where would you like to see Fredo visit?