Freekey Zekey: The DGB Interview

The Dipset mainstay discusses Juelz Santana, 730 Dips, his latest clothing line and more.

While we were interviewing Quikkdraw, he reached out to Freekey so we could get some background info. We caught Zekey while he was on the way to visit Juelz Santana and the conversation turned into a full-on interview. Freekey is always full of surprises, and he went on to give us an update on Juelz, details about his clothing line and it’s offerings for autistic children, doing business with his wife, his label, and whether or not his intelligence is underestimated.

What’s going on with 730 Dips?

Right now I’m in the process of revamping the label. We’ve been rebooting our profile by adding artists like Quikkdraw. Quikk is always working. Personally I’ll be dropping an EP soon.

So you’ll be giving the label a big push?

Oh yeah, 730 is always pushing. In the 4th quarter, I’m going to push hard on them. I’m going to rebirth them. In the meantime in-between time, all my niggas is still active like we do. Putting out new videos, we all over World Star. My dude International T got a project. He got Dave East, of course, myself, of course, Jim (Jones.) I got my boy Tito Green. We got Sen City shaking. I got a new R & B singer, a talented young lady. Everybody is moving, everybody is in the movement of what we got going on. People at Tidal, when we were doing the (Diplomats) documentary, they cut me short. They cut me short when I was talking about the movement. They was like “Preach fam, we need some more of that crazy wild energy G’d up facts rap.”

What’s the deal with your project?

Right now I’m scheduled to have this EP shaking real soon. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. That’s just right off of my head, right then and there. I got a lot of features, a lot of stuff that we’re about to rebirth with 730.

I’ve always been a fan of Tito Green aka Bad Shrek, is he making more music?

Yeah, Bad Shrek! He’s making music. He had to take care of his circumstances so he could travel overseas. He took care of himself and got his mind right. That boy Bad Shrek he’s a problem.

Actually I haven’t started it yet but I’m going to do a compilation album. It’s called The Rise of 730. I’m going to base it around everybody, all the artists we’ve signed to contracts. That’s in the very near future, you’ll hear Quikk and Shrek on there.

What else have you been doing?

Right this second I’ve been pursuing a lot of different businesses so 730’s kid’s kids will be able to eat. That’s more so with EduWear. I’m also starting my non-profit, where I’ll be housing needy kids in group homes. That’s the 2 things I’m getting in order right now. Another thing I got is a computer program that will help low-income kids take their ACT’s and SAT’s. That’s already been trademarked and developed. It’s for those from low-income situations that don’t have access to the tech they need to be able to continue with and get through school.

Have you talked to Juelz Santana recently?

Of course, of course. I’m on a road trip right now to go see my boy Juelz. A lot of people talk that talk but they not really living it. Everyone like “oh yeah Juelz, free my boy,” they quick to just hashtag shit and that’s it. They think that when they’ve posted it they did something. Nah, the boy is really over there in the feds doing it. It don’t take no time to just sit down and write “Juelz I hope you doing good, in this letter I want to let you know I was thinking about your well being.”

I’m just following suit on what the people who loved me, who actually cared about me was doing. I’m doing that for that boy. Son is already good.
Freekey Zekey

It don’t cost nothing to throw the little sixty cent stamp on it and send it. Or just get the paperwork to get visiting rights to do it. Nah I mean, I been behind that G wall. You smell me? I been to the spot where I was making millions and I had to do some time. Then the millionaires that I was with or just people, in general, forgot that prison was a place where you needed the most attention at. I’m just following suit on what the people who loved me, who actually cared about me was doing. I’m doing that for that boy. Son is already good. He already got the jail on lock. I just want to make sure that the people on the outside understand that, ya dig?

Hold on a minute my wife is calling.

Hello? Yeah, that was my lady, shout out to her. Shout out to my lady Perfect Pair, ya dig? We go into business together. See it’s one thing for a motherfucking lady to motherfucking know who you are, and suck and fuck the shit out of you so she can have the payments coming in. But it’s another thing to have her suck and fuck you and say “I got some bread to put in with you. Let’s talk to the world on that double up.”

So that’s what I did with her. Now we got clothing stores, we got an online store and a storefront. I had 2 storefronts, down in North Carolina. I had to close the one in Durham. I had to close that shit down. It was called North Gate but that shit ended up being Hood Gate. Niggas was running through their getting busy. They had robbed the store next to the store that was next to the store where I was at. So before I caught a charge we had to move up out of there. So we moved to Greensboro, and now we’re moving out to Charlotte.

We sell shoes, clothes, and accessories for ladies. It’s called Perfect Pair. I dig that about shorty. She was like “I know who you is. I need to make some bread for me. In case your retarded wild ass do something where I got to make sure I put you back on your feet. I appreciate her for that.

Whose idea was EdUwear?

It’s called EdUwear, which is short for educational wear. I have a business partner, Nikki, a lady from Cleveland. Her, her mom, really her whole family deals with education. Some teach, ones a principal and all of that. All of that, the this, the whatever, and the whoopty whoop. She came to North Carolina and she had the shirts.

She had the shirts and the one that I seen had the velcro, it was dealing with feelings. There’s a happy face, a sad face, an angry face, and a sick face. Underneath the face, there is the feeling that you are. You communicate what feeling that you are with the shirt. It’s proven to be highly effective with autistic children.

She came up with the idea and I gravitated to it with less than the snap of a finger. I gravitated to it because when I saw the shirt I immediately thought about autism. I also thought of mute children, whether it coincides with deafness or not.

You know that when we were young, a lot of times, well I’m going to go back to the old Will Smith thing. Parents don’t understand. They don’t get our feelings or we don’t think our parents understand our feelings. So when they ask we sometimes tend to retract from revealing our true emotions because we don’t think they really understand us. When you have a young child you can ask them but they won’t really say everything. When you tell them to go put their shirt on they’ll consciously or subconsciously let you know how they really feel through the shirt. You can communicate with your child without the pressures of a verbal confrontation. The child’s teachers can adjust how they educate them to go alongside their feelings.

We also have a shirt that has the days of the week. It’s in English and Spanish. We’re trying to help kids to be bi-lingual. We want to get them comfortable with the idea of being able to speak two or more different languages. We have a clock shirt. Not digital, it’s the old school clock. We’re teaching them to read the clock that way. Being that we now come from a digital world the kids don’t even know how to read 9:45 or a quarter past 12 if it’s not digital. They can’t do it with the old school little hand and the big hand. We also have shirts that help teach the shapes and colors. I can go on for 3 or 4 hours about the different styles that I have out and coming out. That’s just a couple quick scenarios of it. When a child wears it the other children around them are going to learn as well.

We’ve had several national big-box retailers call us about it. The Wal-Marts, the Targets, Macy’s even called us about it. So we going to see who get that paperwork in order. Then we’ll implement it into those type of major brands right there.

You seem like the type of person who can open up the doors for a brand.

Of course. I loved her idea so much and I’m a marketing genius. I already know what to do with it. I’m going to skip the line with it. I know who I know. Of course, I know Puff, I got Jim down with Jay-Z. We squashed the beef. We had already squashed the beef with Jay. Now I got a billionaire musician friend. I’m going to have every artist out there, I’m sending shirts to all of them. We going to really get that shit shaking. This is something I feel that every child across the seven continents needs to have.

Kids are so into their phones and their digital world that sometimes they learn from each other better than they learn from the teacher. They’re so into their phone that when the teacher talks to them it’s like hearing a lecture. Sometimes we as peers can learn more from each other than we can learn from a 45-minute lecture.

That was some deep shit you just said. Do you feel like your intelligence is underestimated?

Well I mean I really don’t give a fuck. If someone do think it then I got one up on them. I mean I can’t even confirm what people think. They might think that I’m crazy. Add that to the fact that they might think that I don’t know something. That entails them putting less effort in. The fact that they think they can just get over on me, that means that they’ll be slipping. They’ll be lacking. When they do it, I’ll just overstand what they’re doing and knock their head across the street. That’s with the information that they thought I don’t know. That’ll exclude them from ever having an advantageous relationship over me.

Let’s say for instance that a dude don’t think I understand something in a business meeting. He’s going to think I don’t know, don’t have the answer. He’s going to try to come up off me not knowing. I’m going to speak it, speak it in an elaborate form. The business people are going to give me the deal. So if anyone wants to underestimate me then I’m glad. It’ll be like the NBA, the world did Toronto. Look at them now, that’s me.

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