Rap Radar

Interview: Brian “B.Dot” Miller

The road to success is currently under construction for Leslie “Freeway” Pridgen. Coming off the debacle Philadelphia Freeway 2, It was revealed that Philly’s Roc Boy abandoned the house that Jigga built and enlisted into the Cash Money army. With the ink still wet, Free phoned into Rap Radar to discuss his new situation. Belie’ dat.

RR: You signing to Cash Money came as a surprise.
Freeway: Man, I don’t know how that got out there like that! Like, what’s going down is I’m bout to put out this album, called the Stimulus Package. It’s with Jake One. Jake One producing the whole album. I was in Miami fucking with Baby and them, and me and Baby got a song on the album that’s called “Follow My Moves”. I been fucking with Cash Money. You know, me and Wayne did a joint for the last album, but we couldn’t get the shit cleared in time and all that.  We just throwing around some ideas. And I’m launching a label, Free Money, so what better home for it.

Who approached you to joining the label?
I seen Baby in a mall. I seen him in Louis Vuitton and we was busting it up. And my man Ceelo, he worked with Baby, so he really basically connected us like that. But, right now everything is still in preliminary.

How does this affect your situation with Roc-A-Fella?
It’s still Roc-A-Fella for life. That’s something that’s not going to leave me. But as far as my situations, I gotta do what I gotta do. I’m grinding.
 
Did you talk to Jay about it?
Everything still preliminary. Jay give me his blessing with whatever I want to do. Jay want to see niggas making moves.

Did you feel stagnant at Def jam?
I can’t take nothing away from Def Jam. I just need a situation where I’m the first priority.  It’s a lot of artists over there and I can’t take nothing away from Def Jam, but I gotta do me. Like right now, it’s just a time in my career where I gotta do me.  I gotta do what’s best for Freeway.

But, what does that mean?
That means, do me. Kill the Internets. I’m on the road every weekend. I’m on the road every weekend doing shows like a I got a first single coming out.  

Do you think your style will mesh with Cash Money?
I mean, I think my style mesh well with real people.  I do it all dog.

First two albums were sleepers. But your last album didn’t fair as well. What went wrong?
That was just a project I did. I did that in two days.

Huh, two days?!

Yeah, I did that album in two days. That’s some shit I did with my man Sac from Sacremento. He flew me out there and knocked that shit out in two days. That wasn’t really nothing. The people still loving it.

Ah, I see.
I don’t count that as a major release. It’s more so like a mixtape album. I knocked that shit out and came back.

What happened to the joint venture deal between 50 Cent and Jay-Z?
Basially, right before the album was coming out, there was a lot of different situations that wasn’t going right, for the whole  party. So it fell through. Fif was just on the album and Jay wound up executive producing it by himself.

Last year, you released a new song daily and billed it as “The Month of Madness.” Do you think you might’ve oversaturated the market?
I felt as though it was beneficial. [Critics] can kiss my ass. If they don’t like it, they ain’t don’t go to listen to it.  I work, so what am I gon do? Sit on the material. I’m on the net a lot I get the feedback from people. I think more people loved it than the few people that felt like I oversaturated the market. Like, a lot of people have something to say, but they be sitting on they ass not doing nothing.

But couldn’t that be a pro and a con?
If you put out more quantity than the quality than of course that’s fucked up. But if you put out a lot of quality, than that’s what’s up. From all the reviews that I got, I think the month of madness was quantity and quality. What you think?

I thought some were good. But wasn’t a fan of all of them.  Thought it was weird cause your an established. Thought it was something a younger act would do to get his name out.
Yeah. Yeah.