Keep It MovingFredo Bang is cruising through 2025 with no excuses.Interview: Joey EchevarriaEditor’s Note: This story appears in the Summer 2025 issue of XXL Magazine, on newsstands now and available for sale on the XXL website.
None of life’s setbacks are going to stop Fredo Bang from getting where he’s going. Using his turbulent upbringing and past label issues as fuel for the future, the Baton Rouge, La. rhymer is leaving no stone unturned. Nearing the end of 2025, Fredo, 29, has released three projects, 8 Legged Gorilla, a joint effort with Tec released in March; his first album via Empire, The Big Bang, which dropped in May, and Kreature Muzik, out this month. While consistently delivering quality bars, Fredo continues to build momentum with a sense of vulnerability relatable to anyone who’s been through the struggle. Here, he breaks down plans for even more music in 2025, the brutal life lessons that drive his motivation, balancing a rap career with fatherhood and more.
XXL: You just released your album, Kreature Muzik. The Big Bang and Yes, I’m Sad came prior. What mindset comes along with new projects?
Fredo Bang: I think just the overall sound [of The Big Bang], that mellow sound, just had me thinking more deeply about it. I was naming it something that complemented and basically put people in my perspective of when I made it. I really wanted to come way sooner, but I just got with Empire. So, I just wanted to find me a new home. I always just throw the music out, but I be wanting to present it to everybody and give a fair shot to listen and stuff like that.
On the song “Won’t Be Lonely,” you rap, “I don’t look like half the sh*t I’ve been through.” What life lessons have you learned that help you to keep pushing forward to the future?
Just losing people, not being able to tell them how you feel, or even being in touch with them before they died. Doing jail time, missing out on so much in life. Wondering where I would be and thinking that I’d be way further in life if I would have never did that time. If I was smarter and didn’t make the mistakes I did.
We go through problems in life, but sometimes we still make excuses for ourselves. But at the same time, I just feel like we let our problems become our excuses to not go further. We have roadblocks our whole life and we only let that stop us. So sometimes, we got to have somebody not be here and be like, “Man, just do it.”
What’s next for you to accomplish for your career in 2025?
I ain’t stopping. I’m catching my stride again and I’ll drop another album before the year is over with, if not two. Just staying consistent with it. Not overthinking it. I’m just getting back to having fun with and not just looking at it as a job. I’m open to tours. Now, I’m just looking for someone to go out [on tour with who has] the right demographic, the right routes, the right everything with it.
I’m a daddy now. So that was kind of hard, too, having multiple kids in a certain span of time. I’m trying to balance being a full-time rapper and a full-time dad. Close to impossible, but I’m getting there.
How do you go about finding that balance, especially with three children under the age of 4 years old?
With rapping, especially when you’re active and you’re trying to do stuff and you got game plans, it’s needed. It’s super, super needed. Of course, my children come first before anything, but at the end of the day, my job is what feeds them, you feel me? It’s like pulling teeth both ways.
With such a high volume of musical output this year, what message are you looking to deliver to your fans?
I got a habit of telling people things that I need to hear, too. So, I feel like those verses is something that everybody need to hear from somebody that could uplift them and stuff like that. Just make a muthaf**ka day better. I make music and I put it out, and I just hope people listen. I try to make every song special. I try to make every song different. I put my all into eachsong.
Listen to Fredo Bang’s Kreature Muzik Album
The summer 2025 issue of XXL magazine featuring Fredo Bang’s interview is available to purchase here. The issue also includes interviews with all 12 members of the 2025 Freshman Class and producer Cardo Got Wings, as well as conversations with Key Glock, Larry June, Aminé, Monaleo, Nardo Wick, Tech N9ne, X-Games snowboarding champion Zeb Powell and more, plus a look back at what the 2024 XXL Freshman Class has been doing and a deep dive into who’s the biggest and best XXL Freshman ever.
