EXCLUSIVE: Freeway Talks Touring With Kidney Disease, New Album Free Will

When the rapper born Leslie Pridgen named himself Freeway, he couldn’t have come up with a better moniker. Ever since the Philadelphia native burst onto the national rap scene in 2000 with his verse on Jay Z’s “1-900-Hustler,” Freeway has carved out his own lane, using his unique voice and skill set to set him apart from not only his fellow State Property members that he came in the game with, but the entire rap game period.

His first album, 2003’s Philadelphia Freeway went gold and he appeared to be on his way to a swift rise to the top. But, after his Roc-A-Fella home split around 2005, Free found himself in label purgatory. But just like the song that blew him up suggested, he didn’t sit and wait for things to change, he got out and hustled.

Freeway is dope. Out of everybody in State Property, he had the most solid work ethic. Whether he has a new record out or not, he goes out and self-promotes. He’s always working, near or far. I’ll run into him in Cincinnatti or Copenhagen, Denmark. — Black Thought of The Roots

In the last 10 years he has released eight projects as both a solo artist and co-collaborator, keeping his name alive. But in 2015 he found himself in a position where he was a simply trying to stay alive.

Last September, Freeway was diagnosed with kidney failure and rushed to a hospital with treatment. The setback changed how he moves, but did not stop him completely. Now with his new album Free Will, the Philadelphia native feels that he has even more to fight for and prove, even with 16 years under his belt.

See what that means on the following pages.

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Photo: Instagram

HipHopWired.com: Explain the album title to us. We have our assumptions, but would like to hear it from you.

Freeway: As humans, we are the only one of God’s creations that have free will. We can do right or wrong, move forward or be stagnant. Creatively, I felt like I was in a space where I was exhibiting my free will. The second twist is saying “Free will…,” as in, I will survive. I will continue. With the cover, we got the idea from The Matrix. The whole thing with the red or blue pill, you have the choice to make the right decision.

HHW: What direction were you looking to go with this album? It has been four years since you dropped Diamond In the Ruff, and you’ve had some health challenges as of late. We imagine you have a lot to say this time around.

Freeway: I just wanted to get back to my core fanbase. I did Stimulus Package with Jake One, so that was on some real Hip-Hop. I did the project with Girl Talk and that was another lane. With this I just stuck to my core fanbase and went back to what they love me for.

HHW: Well, those albums didn’t sound like far stretches from what you do. What would say is your core fanbase? Stimulus Package actually seemed to be spot on.

Freeway: I’d say it’s the struggle, the soul, the feeling. I just gave what I think music is missing, that FEEL. That sh*t you can relate to and play the whole thing because you feel it. Thats where I was with it.

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HHW: You work with a lot of different producers ranging from Jake One to Girl Talk and a lot of little known producers. How do you like this experience? You came in the game signed to Roc-A-Fella, and you pretty much had to work with Just Blaze and Kanye West, which isn’t a terrible thing.

Freeway: [laughs] Right, that was not a bad thing. With Free Will I worked with these new producers Scholito and S. Frank and we went into another zone.  It’s a fresh energy and I felt like I was in the same kind of zone I was in with the Just Blaze’s and Jake One’s. It’s a blessing to be able to work with so many different producers. That’s the space music is in right now, if you got heat, we working. Don’t matter if you’re fat, skinny, Black, Asian. If it’s heat we working. My main thing is as long as it’s heat.

HHW: You also get to work with artists that many people don’t expect you to. You did a whole project with Tha Jacka before he passed. How did that pairing happen?

Freeway: I was on tour with Jay Z back in 2002. We had a show out in the Bay and Jacka reached out and wanted to buy a verse. I went to his hood and we just connected. I felt like they was doing the same things we were. Plus, his music was dope. Jacka is one of my favorite artists, the way he came up with different flow patterns and the things he did with his voice amazed me. I miss him, I think about him a lot. He was good person with a good heart. He’d give people the shirt off his back, I saw him do it.

HHW: Last year you were diagnosed with kidney disease and rushed to a hospital. That was a shock for fans, so it obviously had to be a shock for you, too. How did it get to that point?

Freeway: A lot of people don’t know about kidney disease.. The main thing about any disease is getting the knowledge and knowing what’s going on. In 2012, I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and diabetes. Those are the leading risk factors for kidney disease and I didn’t know. That that wasn’t explained to me. So, I was taking my medicines and thinking I was fine, so I went back to eating what i usually ate. Cheesesteaks and stuff I wasn’t supposed to. But if I had the knowledge, I could’ve been dieting differently and prolonged the inevitable.

HHW: So you, a Philadelphian, can’t eat cheesesteaks anymore?

Freeway: I mean, I can, just not everyday. But I can’t eat french fries, ketchup, bananas, broccoli. Imagine going to get a burger but can’t get no fries.

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HHW: How did that affect the making of the Free Will album? Actually, how is this affecting your career right now. You’re on the road a lot.

Freeway: I had the majority of the album done before I was diagnosed. I have to plan farther ahead now. I’m on dialysis and I do it three times a week, four hours a day. I can’t miss that. So when I go out on the road I have to set up dialysis in each city that I go to. We already have it mapped out. The hardest thing about it is I’m going to have different people sticking me with needles in every city instead of the people I’m used to doing it back home.

But I’ve got a whole new outlook on life. I’m not coming out unless it’s important. But I have to keep pushing. I want to motivate people. There are a lot of people in the same position I’m in. There’s millions of people with kidney disease and some people don’t even know it. The people who know it and think it’s hindering them, I want them to see me pushing forward and know it’s not a death sentence. You can still live your life as long as you take care of yourself and do what you’re supposed to do.

HHW: A lot us were introduced to you as a Roc-A-Fella artist, but as it stands now, you’ve been an independent artist longer than you were a major label artist. How has it been wearing that hat since the Roc split?

Freeway: You’re right. I’ve been indie longer than I was signed. It depends on the kind of person you are. If you willing to do the work and learn the game, you will be successful. There are a lot lot of artist in the Bay Area who are millionaires and set for life, all from being independent. If you learn the game right you can be successful. Some people want to be signed, get upfront money and have the glitz and glamour. Thats cool. too.

But make sure you learn and take notes along the way because there might be a time where it ends. You may be in a situation like me where you are signed to a big label like the Roc, and it splits, and now you out there on your own. Luckily for me I was learning as I was going. When the split happened, I didn’t worry, I just went back to what I was always doing, and that’s hustling.

HHW: We brought up the Stimulus Package album that you did with Jake One back in 2010. Of course, you two weren’t the first to revisit the one producer/one MC concept that much Hip-Hop music went by back in the day. But with projects like Run The Jewels and Pryhme, it does seem like we saw it done more often after Stimulus Package dropped. Have you noticed?

Freeway: We definitely set a trend with that. I even said it on the album when i said, “Drop the Stimulus Package, watch these rappers follow my pattern.” What we did together was epic. Jake is around artists a lot more than I am because he’s always working with them. He told me a lot of these guys either never heard of me or thought I was gone until Stimulus Package dropped. I’m talking about a lot of your favorite artists saying this. That album was good for Hip-Hop and good for us, too. There will definitely be another Stimulus Package in the near future. We’ve got a couple records done, we just haven’t got in and zoned out yet. We’re going back in at the end of the year to really start cooking.

HHW: A trailer for a documentary about your life and living with kidney disease dropped not too long ago. Why did you think now was a good time for this?

Freeway: Shoutout to my man T. Reed, he’s the director. He worked for Al Jazeera. It’s coming along great. We have footage from before I got on on up to now. I think it will be very interesting and relatable. I’ve been doing this for 15 years and I’ve been successful the whole time. I also realized that I have fans and that I don’t open up and let them in that much. Outside of what I might put in my music, I’m a pretty private person. All the greats let you in.