Illuminati 2G caught up with Diplomats member Freekey Zekey for a exclusive interview. We discuss his upcoming album and mixtapes, what’s good with Jim Jones and Cam’ron, the Dipset movement and much more so check it out.
Illuminati 2G is here with Freekey Zekey, how’s it going?
It’s going great baby! I can’t feel any better. The whole set is on the rise, we all getting money, and it’s my turn to shine as far as being the overseer of the person getting all the money!
Alright. First off congrats Big Cat Records/Tommy Boy signing. Just tell us briefly how that deal came about.
Thanks alot, thanks alot. For thinking about someone getting money, I appreciate ya happiness. My publicist Lynn, she just so happened to be in that building at that time and she had to go to the bathroom. So she stopped off on the Tommy Boy floor. And while she was going to the bathroom, she overheard some reps talking about Freekey Zekey. And she knows me because she is Juelz’s publicist also. So she is definitely family. She heard my name and was like “what’s popping with Zekey?” They was like well we checked his record, we checked his 1st album and they seen that I put most of my own time and money involved in my 1st album. They was like it was a well put together project but with someone actually backing him, we could have way more success then what he had the 1st time. She was like aight. Next thing I know Tommy was on the phone with Cat, Cat got on the phone with me, a week later I was signed. So got to give a good look for Lynn having to take a leak you feel me?(laughs).
Definitely (laughs). Tell me about your new mixtape that just dropped, Henny & A Cigarette.
Well actually this is the 2nd mixtape that dropped. That was my first mixtape, Henny & A Cigarette. Because first and foremost ya boy Freekey Zekey aka Dead On Freekey, slap the shit out of ya hood boxer, YEAH! (laughs), He liked to have some Henny on his left hand so I named my first mixtape, Blame It On The Henny. But then when I got signed to Cat, I had more music so I sent that out and we got with DJ Scream who is out there. DJ Scream is a major mixtape dude. He was like Zekey, you got it popping you working hard body, the music is crazy and universal. So I named it Henny & A Cigarette. You know what I’m saying?
Ok
And I got another mixtape coming out soon, it’s going to be by one of the Apphiliates or Drama. Course I’mma roll with Drama once we get that paperwork together, but it don’t matter, all the Apphiliates got it popping. I’m going to have a 3rd mixtape drop before my album drops, that’s going to be called Henny & A Muff Down (laughs).
Ok (laughs). How did the track This Girl come together with you, Lil Wayne and Jim Jones?
Wow that was just, I was just happy that the end result was so successfull. It all started with I did the song by myself. I was in my house, going through beats and I heard the beat so I’m like wow. This is hard body right here. So I called my man Sen, which is also my artist. One of my first artists on 730 Dips and 730 Dipset South record label that I am opening. I had him on there so he put the hook down, and he bodied it, murked it. Just ripped the whole track apart. Once I heard the hook, I just went in. I did 3 verses to the song. The song was real powerful so I told Jim, who I be with if not Monday thru Monday, at least Monday thru Sunday. So I was in the studio with him, and we was finishing up his work, and I was like listen man, everybody stop what they doing right now, I am about to play some of Freekey’s music. 1st song I played was This Girl, Jimmy did not want to hear no more music. He was like hold on, hold on, hold on, hooooold ooooon!!! (laughs).
I’m getting on this right here. I’m like I got 3 verses he was like fam listen I don’t care if you 479 million verses on there. 1 of them joints is going to be with me on there. So I’m like aight, he jumped on it and everybody kept feeling the track so much that why not put the icing on the cake with the cherry on top with the bow around it and a playboy bunny with it and call my boy Weezy and then go to Pluto with it. Since I have been knowing Weezy for a long time, I figure I would call before the WMAs. But I was working so hard I did not know it was a day before the VMAs. But I knew he would get on the track. So I called him the next day, and I don’t know if it was the lady that was with him all the time, she called me while they were shooting the awards. She was like Zeke, we at the VMAs, right now, this is live. He was in the middle of a song. I’m like oh my bad. So the next day I find out we have the same laywers. Stacy Richmond. Shout out to her because she got me out of alot of trouble. She told me Weezy is going to be there, so I fly back to New York and back to the spot. When night came, Weezy had the cd done, he was on the track, he bodied it, and the song is a classic.
Yeah that is a crazy track.
Appreciate it, appreciate it
Do you have a release date or anything for your 1st album that will be released on Big Cat Records?
Right now I’mma lean towards the summer of 09. I could drop at the 4th quarter, but I never liked to drop around the 4th quarter because of the fact that I am heating up right now. (Speaks to a friend of his)
We in Harlem right now, that was not fake!
No doubt.
You know the guy who started Video Music Box?
Yeah
Yeah that was Ralph McDaniel. He just so happened to be walking by 2 5th. Right now we doing this interview we on 124th St in front of the Magic Johnson Theater, which is located on 8th Ave and 124th St. I am in front of that theater right now doing a interview with you.
Ok!
Anybody is subject to walk by. Even Ralph McDaniel
Ok that’s the business then!
Is there any other details that you can give about the album or are you just in the beginning stages of it right now?
Oh my bad, Ralph McDaniel fucked me up (laughs). But actually I am leaning towards summer of 09. Just because of the fact that I still want to heat up and get my music out to the people. Basically long story short I’m packing my bags to go on vacation. You know how you how you pack your bags, and you have to have everything packed in your suitcase, before you leave. And that is how I parallel my albums to reality. I just can’t put my albums out without packing and preparing you know what I’m saying?
Right
If you understand what I am trying to get at. I’m going to do a couple more mixtapes, which is going to keep heating up the streets. Everybody will know it is relevant, and I say by the time summer of 09 come that is when I believe I will be presenting myself, which the album will be called Loyalty Is Everything. I picked that because if you pick the first letter of each word, it spells lie. And most of the time in life the people that you have been dealing with they have done some real things to you that really hurt you. Or your progress to the top, so in my coming up, there was alot of things and people close to me that did some backwards faggot shit. That got me upset and I could have been the end of my career. But being a strong dude I kept it moving.
What is your whole take or stance on the whole thing with Cam’ron and Jim Jones? It really does not seem like it is beef or anything, but it just kind of seems like they are doing their own thing and it definitely has not split Dipset up, you can definitely tell Cam is over here and Jimmy is over here, what is your whole take on what is going on with that?
Well being that I am the president of Diplomat Records, it really to be honest with you, it baffles me. Because me, Cam, Jim and Juelz we have been together since like day one. We knew Juelz before Juelz knew who Juelz was. We knew him when he was in his pampers. We knew each other like right when we realize we did not need no more pampers. It’s wasn’t like this is just a crew, or people that we met each avenue. This is family. Each and every one of our grandmothers and mothers done whipped us. When I got out of jail, I was like what’s going on, who mad at who? Man I was like so what. Then when I got close to it, once I started figuring out what was going on, I found out that both sides had they little points. The friendship did not end too much but the business side did. It was not so much like they could work together, because of alot of things that they was not agreeing on. Opposed to shooting and killing each other, they separated they ways. But that does not mean that everything is over. Honestly I speak to both of them. I see both of them all the time. Love is always love. Me being the crazy dude that I am, I gonna make sure that I make a Diplomatic Immunity 3 album pop off. Feel me? So stay tuned, keep ya eyes open we on the rise and so is Diplomats. So watch me put it on my back and carry it like I usually do.
What’s some good memories that you remember back in the day with the whole forming of the whole Dipset and did you guys ever think back then that it would be a…, I mean it is a movement. It is literally a movement. Did you guys think it would be as big as it is today back then when you guys started the whole thing?
Actually we, the reason way it is so big, no homo and why it is such a movement, is because we did not plan this at all. We did not say ok us 4 we gonna come together and we gonna conquer Harlem/The World. We was just all 4 hustlers, who put all our passion, heart, mind, body and soul into all our projects. And seen the results of it. Like the movement is exactly what like the saying hard work pays off, this was definitely the payoff. A moment that I will never forget, was when one time we went to Chicago. We was on a grind, I mean heavy grind like we was not popping like that, but everybody knew us, but everybody knew us off of the 1st album, Confessions Of Fire, 357 was out, we had the joint Pull It, we was rocking. But by the time the 2nd album came out, Un (Lance Rivera) was taking alot of money from us. So we was definitely deep in debt. But the world knew us to be some fly, rich dudes. Actually we was in the hole 1.4 million. We had a show out in Chicago, and instead of the dude paying for the flight, we told him give us the travel money, and we can drive out there to save money. So now we drive from New York all the way to Chicago, that is one thing. We got Cam’s sister driving, we did not even have a driver, in her car, we all in there, packed in there. We finally get to Chicago, we get to the dude, we see the dude, we get half the money, we getting ready to do the show. Cam’s stomach starts bothering him. He had I.B.S., Immune Bowel Syndrome.
His stomach starting messing with him, right when we was about to perform. I mean like 5 or 10 minutes before we are going to perform. Cam said he can’t perform, he got to go to the hospital. We like OH SHIT!! So now I take Cam to the hospital, Jim is in there getting the money together, Jim is like yo is Cam on his way? I’m like man he is sick, he is fucked up right now. Now its time, everything is winding down, Jim collects all the money, and he is like I got the money, come get me. I leave the hospital, go get Jim, when I honk the horn to get Jim, I see Jim face down underneath the gas station pump waiting for me. I’m like what the fuck is he doing? So when he sees me, he is like let’s go. So I leave and take Jim to the hospital, we go get Cam, and bring him to the hotel the next morning. We leaving the hotel, and I’m like Jim what happened with the show? He was like listen man I told them niggas I’d be right back and I got the fuck up out of there. I’m like aight, but he said I got the money though. So we like aight. So we leaving, the dude that threw the promotion, he comes through and calls us. We like ahh shit. So Jim goes into the car, starts talking to the dude, telling him, I don’t know what the fuck he telling him. But then when Jim gets out of the car, all you hear is the driver saying YOU AIN’T GOING NOWHERE NIGGA!!!. Trying to grab Jim, Jim punches the dude in the face. He gets out, Cam mind you is sick to death, he can’t move. Now I see the commotion going on, I’m running over to get to Jim, some dude 6’6″, 270 gets out the truck. I’m like oh shit. Then another lil dude gets out. I’m like ahh man. So everybody basically had they people to fight. Jim was getting ready to fight the dude who grabbed him, the other dude that came out Juelz is on him, and then the Hulk’s little nephew was about to fight me.
So I was like fuck it, ran over to the dude and hit the dude with a Tropicana Orange Juice bottle (laughs). Hit him over the head, we getting it on. Juelz can’t catch the dude he trying to fight, he keeps running from Juelz. The whole time he running from Juelz in a circle, he runs past me. So he runs past me and tries to hit me in the head. I’m like Juelz go catch this lil nigga (laughs). Juelz is like I’m trying to, I’m trying. But every few minutes the dude try to come around and hit me. Long story short, I decked the dude, he knocked out, Jim got the dude he fighting by the back of the collar and the back of his pants ramming up into the car door like what the police do when they trying to break ya door in, and Juelz still chasing and trying to catch the little kid. And a undercover police officer who we did not know was there at the time, pulls out a gun and points it at Jim’s head. So we was like no don’t kill our friend! Dude pulled out a badge and was like I’m undercover what the hell is going on over here? And do to the fact that the dudes did not have no contract, they tried to say we causing trouble and we stole they money. We was like get out of here we artists. We came to do a show, Cam showed up, Cam got sick, there is nothing under the contract that states that if we show up we can’t get our money. It’s not our faults he got sick. The police let us go, but that day was CRAZY!!! The vocal and the visual are 2 different things, but I’ll never forget that day. That shit is the craziest day in my life.
Wow
And we beat everybody and we got our names known in Chi-Town and we kept the money.
All in a days work, all in a days work
That is the Dipset way. For some reason, we don’t look for the trouble. We try to chill out, we try to be easy, but sometimes trouble seems to always find us. But we rectify the situation. That is why the movement is so strong. Because they understand we don’t look for the trouble, we not these guys walking around, banging on our chests like we gorillas in the mist. We just come through as some smooth dudes, out to get our money. Don’t fuck with us, you will get ya shit pushed back. And it usually happens.
You had spoke earlier in the interview dealing with different associates and people that you have met in your career. What’s the biggest life lesson in the music industry that you have learned or that you stayed aware of because of different situations that have happened to you that sticks out?
The biggest thing for me would be stay very focused and stay very in tune and in charge of your own life. Don’t allow no one else to become the person that you depend on. Make yourself the person that you have to depend on. Don’t trust any and everything that is influenced by your eyes. Basically once again I want to reiterate, stay focused on your life. You be the leader or your own life, not saying that no one else that you have around you can’t step to the level of helping you with your success. Be sure that everyone knows that you are in charge of your life and be the person that is going to make the final decision and be the person that is going to be aware of everything that is going on. Because if you don’t stay focused, point blank period, on anything you do, whether it is on yourself or someone else, you working for somebody or anything that you do in life, you don’t stay focused on your career, and what you doing, someone is going to grasp it. Move on with it and make more money than you and you gonna look up one day and be broke and going to wonder what happened. That is the thing that I learned. I learned that I have to be focused, I have to take control of everything that I am doing.
Well that is all the questions that I have for you, really appreciate you getting down for the interview. Is there any last words or shoutouts you want to get out there to the fans?
I’d like to say good looking out. Thanks for this interview. (Freekey hollers at some ladies) I’d like to say first and foremost appreciate this interview. I love when someone asks me certain things in life. Because I feel like I’m being a teacher to the world. I always want to be able to let the kids, and adults know what is going on with my life. Maybe they can see some of they life in mine, and they can just change it. And ressurect theirs if it is not going too well. Ya know?
Ok
2, I like to say if you want to log on to www.myspace.com/freekeyzekey. You can log on to myspace if you want to get in contact with me. If I am not on it my manager is, so it’s just not a space that is there, people do answer back. And just shoutout to the whole 730, shout out to Big Cat Records, shout out to Tommy Boy, shout out to everybody out there that is feeling Dipset, that is grinding with us, and definitely know that Freekey Zekey AKA Dead On Freekey, slap the shit out of ya hood boxer (laughs) WILL make sure another Diplomatic Immunity album come out, trust me. Trust and believe. When I speak my word stomps on the ground and everybody gets to hear it, or you definitely feel the tremble.
Alright appreciate the interview.
Anytime.
D-Nice