Freddie Gibbs revealed his six degrees of separation from Micheal Jackson are much closer than most. On a recent episode of the All the Smoke podcast, the rapper shared that his father and the King of Pop were talent show rivals as kids.

Gibbs told hosts Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson that Jackson took no prisoners on the stage.

“Yeah, Michael Jackson used to beat my daddy’s a** in the talent shows,” Gibbs said.

“My dad [sang] in The Chi-Lites, a matter of fact. Him and Mike the same age, so they was always bumping heads in the talent shows, and Mike would f**k that n***a up. I’m like, ‘Fuck you thought, n***a?'”

The rapper continued dragging his father for even thinking he had a chance. Gibbs recalled the time his father had to take on Jackson with all his brothers backing him.

“And I’m like, you up there solo. He got Tito, Jermaine… They in step, they got moves, they got Joe, you know what I’m sayin’? They had Joe pushin’ them n****s. You ain’t had nobody; you just had yo mama telling you, ‘Yes, my baby!’ Mike had a team, n***a! He couldn’t fuck with Mike.”

The Grammy-nominated rapper joked about how Jackson's legendary status may have left his dad bitter.

“I love you, Dad, but you know you can’t fuck with Mike,” he said. “Mike was fuckin’ you up your whole life. We be watching Michael Jackson, my dad like, ‘Turn that motherf**kin s**t off.”

“He be listening to it on the low, though,” he continued. “That n***a love Mike.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by All the Smoke (@allthesmoke)

Gibbs’ dad may have come in second to Mike, but he passed the talent gene on to his son.

Gibbs added acting to his resume with his debut in 2021’s award-winning independent film Down With the King.

His first-time effort made an impact, with The New York Times naming Gibbs among the top 10 best actors of 2022.