00:04
DJ Iron Mike
What's going on, everybody? It's your boy, DJ Iron Mike. And you're listening to local Rap Lunch. You're just listening to my homeboy, Freedom Infinite with Dope of his last album Nerds in the Hood. And I've got the homie in the building right now.
00:17
Freedom Infinite
Yeah, yeah. Infinite. Infinite. What's good, what's good?
00:22
DJ Iron Mike
There you go.
00:24
Freedom Infinite
Ain't been a radio in a minute, man. I had get back on it. How y' all doing though? You already know Joco in the building. Freedom Infinite. Infinite Family, you already know. Got Courtney Edge in the building with me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, look. You know I had to bring Baby Boy with me.
00:41
DJ Iron Mike
Well, you know, there's people on the radio.
00:43
Freedom Infinite
Yeah, you can't see them.
00:44
DJ Iron Mike
But just. Just for reference, everybody, he's also freed. He's also live streaming on us.
00:51
Freedom Infinite
Yes.
00:51
DJ Iron Mike
What are you on. On Facebook?
00:52
Freedom Infinite
Yeah, I'm on Facebook live right now. I got my if for yours that cannot see me. I also brought my baby boy and here.
00:59
DJ Iron Mike
Yeah, man, definitely welcome up here in the building. Good to have you up here. For those of you who've been listening to local Rap Lunch for a while, you know that Free is actually one of the. One of the first guests I ever had up here. Yeah. So it's good to have you back. You've been doing a lot, man. I gotta say one thing.
01:17
Freedom Infinite
Go ahead, go ahead, go ahead.
01:19
DJ Iron Mike
You know, I've been rocking with you since what, 2015?
01:22
Freedom Infinite
Yeah, yeah.
01:23
DJ Iron Mike
I gotta say, for everybody listening out there, this dude has shown the most growth and, like, positive growth out of most of the people locally, you know, like, you. You went like you were. You were dope when you started out, but now I seen you at that trap and boom bat trap versus boom bat joint, and your whole. Your whole stage presence is like, kind of. It's just gone to another level, man. Like, you've done a great job.
01:47
Freedom Infinite
Is. Is. Is when you become one with your music? Yes. It's like. Like, where. What happened was when you first met me, I was just jumping into what I was doing, you know, the nerd whole.
02:01
DJ Iron Mike
And you're kind of transitioning from, like, one sound.
02:03
Freedom Infinite
Yeah, I was. I was completely boom baptized. So this is. This is me. I was, you know, I was conflicted, you know, mentally, because it's like, dang, I'm. I'm Mr. Hippity Boppity Bippity boppity. Yeah. Real talk.
02:18
DJ Iron Mike
Yeah. Yeah.
02:19
Freedom Infinite
So now, you know, I'm getting into a, a stage in my life where I feel like, you know, this is not making me the money I want to be making. I can rap all day, right? But now I want to make this money. So, you know, I started switching it up. Next thing you know, everything happened. So once that happened, I just got more confident. And then what you see now is just like I said, became one with the music clientele. You know, that was the push. That was the push right there. Once he told me, yo, this is what was gonna happen, and it happened. And this, you know, I became one of the music. Everybody started, you know, lost some people on, along the way, but I gained more people, right?
03:06
Freedom Infinite
The people that were lost and really not factoring in me anymore.
03:09
DJ Iron Mike
And during that change, so you kind of had a little couple brush ins with people, brush ups with people, you know. Yeah, I mean, you know, not the, you know, talking, but it's just like, you know, you change the game. And you started getting more visibility from that one performance that you did here at Fridays on the lawn.
03:31
Freedom Infinite
Thank you. Yes, thank you, bro.
03:33
DJ Iron Mike
You just kind of started getting more visible and then, you know, then the mentions start and all that kind of.
03:38
Freedom Infinite
Stuff and well, you know, when they feel like you're undeserving of all the hard work that you put in. Right. This is nothing where I was begging for handouts or, or you know, being political.
03:52
DJ Iron Mike
Right.
03:53
Freedom Infinite
As you could say. This is none of that. This is me putting in work, you know, believing in my craft, waking up every day, maybe three, four o' clock in the morning, writing a song, you know, listening to albums of, you know, my music, watching performances, saying what I could do better. This is, this is nothing where like, you know, this is not easy. This is no overnight thing. This was not easy at all. You know, I put Jordan and Kobe hours in and I still ain't where I want to be.
04:20
DJ Iron Mike
Yeah.
04:20
Freedom Infinite
So, you know, this is not. I'm not comfortable. I'm not walking around like I'm super bad. Best rapper. None of that, you know, not. I only have a million. So once I start having the millions, I can, you know, quit my job and my job is music. Then I can talk, but I'm nowhere near that. So, you know, I'm working hard to get to where I want to be.
04:42
DJ Iron Mike
So I mean, you know, you kind of, you mentioned earlier, like people saying you're undeserving of your attention and all that kind of stuff, you know, you see that intersect also in like the. The national hip hop scene. Well, I guess scene, whatever. National hip hop industry, you know, we're kind of at a. At a place where like, you know, the old heads and the young people kind of going at each other about which one's the real one. And, you know, our scene here in North Carolina for the longest was so. The sound was so dominated by like, little brother and night style and like the boom bap soul aspect of it. And you still. Still wove yourself into the. The local, the underground scene instead of, you know, the, you know, the BC scene.
05:26
Freedom Infinite
I can wrap, right? Yeah, I can rap. There's not no stuff where. Where, you know, the music might sound a certain way, but if you listening to the lyrics, it doesn't sound that way. It's just I constructed it in a way where you can both. Where both parties can enjoy. Because like I said, I'm a boom bap at heart. You know, hippity boppity, bippity boppity, lyrical, critical, spiritual miracle. I do all of that.
05:53
DJ Iron Mike
Right.
05:53
Freedom Infinite
But at the same time, you know, I got to give them what I want to give them. And, you know, that's. That. That was me, like I said, trying to impress rappers instead of me trying to get these fans.
06:07
DJ Iron Mike
Yeah.
06:08
Freedom Infinite
So, you know, once you get to a point where, you know, I didn't impress all the rappers I wanted and impressed, but, you know, that's it. You know, I want to. I want to trans. Like you said, you transition into a more mainstream pool. But at the same time, I keep my. My essence because that's. That's essential to a lot of things. And your artistry, you know, don't you lose track of who you are and what you started out as. So at the same time, I, I'm. I'm in the future, but, you know, I still dedicate things to the past where, you know, the trap versus boom bat concept, that's where that came from, was. Was trying to let people know that there's good music on both sides and, you know, let's not be that way.
06:54
Freedom Infinite
Oh, he does this type of music, you know, his is garbage. Or he does this and now, you know, he's old and played out right now. None of that, you know, See, like, that's.
07:08
DJ Iron Mike
That's one thing with the trap versus boom bat shows that you. That you put on. You kind of took that energy of, you know, people say, like pushing back, saying all that traps. That's not what we're about that's not hip hop. And then you took the energy of the young cats making trap music, mostly trap music, and you put them together in one building. And for those who don't know, like, those shows have been like some of the most successful hip hop shows in the city.
07:32
Freedom Infinite
I look okay now.
07:33
DJ Iron Mike
Deep south, man.
07:34
Freedom Infinite
Like, shout out to Deep south, man. You know, I wish, you know, we could still be having them, man. I, I could tell you know, made a lot of money that day. But the attendance, you know, I, I, I. After I made enough money, I kept told people, just let a man free. So we almost hit capacity. You know, capacity is like 130 something people. We had about 100, 150020 people in there.
08:01
DJ Iron Mike
Oh, wow.
08:01
Freedom Infinite
So, you know, that was with the pizza and all of that stuff. You know, that was, that one. That was the most successful show I threw. And that was the last show I threw at Deep South. And that was off. They gave us our first show ever. Like how we came out, like, how we came up, how freedom Infinite family. All of us, how we got to where we are if we want for Deep South. And all of them, you know, they the ones that made sure we could open the door for everybody else because nobody trying to give us a door.
08:30
DJ Iron Mike
That's awesome, man. So you got a new album out.
08:33
Freedom Infinite
Revenge of the Nerds, Spotify, Apple Music, all of that, you know, whatever music store you own. Go cop that. It's there. It is there. I promise you, everybody, it is streaming. Well, we, you know, people bumping it. They loving it and much more.
08:53
DJ Iron Mike
What's been your best compliment about the album so far?
08:55
Freedom Infinite
It don't sound like the last one. And you know how hard it is when you're using the same when you're in the pocket. Yeah, yeah. Cause it's like, you know, people gonna expect the first, the second one sound like first one. Are they gonna sound the same? Probably gonna about the same things. No, it's a Yang album. You get the good and the bad. Revenge is the dark side of freedom. Oh. Nerds in the hood was defined bouncy. You know, this is the, you know, this is where, you know, and there's.
09:24
DJ Iron Mike
A story behind your concept of that. We're gonna, we're gonna get into the music real quick. I got some new Pat Jr. For you. Some new, some new de facto, of course.
09:32
Freedom Infinite
Some new free shout out to Pat Jr. De facto. You already know, man.
09:36
DJ Iron Mike
So let's get into that. And then when you come back, we're going to talk some more about. About Revenge of the Nerds. Keep it locked here. W can see 88.1 FM.
09:44
Freedom Infinite
Let's get it, gang.
09:55
DJ Iron Mike
What's going on, everybody? It's your boy dj. Oh, man. What's going on, everybody? It's your boy, DJ Iron Mike listening to local rap lunch. I got the homeboy Freedom Infinite in the building right now. Yeah, you gotta forget about your phone. Just listen to Skylines off of Free's last album.
10:19
Freedom Infinite
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
10:20
DJ Iron Mike
Nerds in the Hood.
10:21
Freedom Infinite
Nerds in the Hood. That's on Spotify, iTunes, Apple Music, all of that. Whatever music story you frequent, just type in Freedom Infinite. Nerds in the Hood. It'll pop up. 20 records title. Yeah.
10:37
DJ Iron Mike
Apple Music, all that.
10:38
Freedom Infinite
Yeah, yeah.
10:40
DJ Iron Mike
So. So, yeah, we. We're in here chopping it up about, you know, local music and progression, man.
10:47
Freedom Infinite
Everybody, bro. Music. Everybody. Music sounding better, man. Like, for real. For real, man. If your music not getting better, I don't know what you're doing, man.
10:56
DJ Iron Mike
But not. It's been. It's been a really good year for everybody. I have to agree, you know, between 2018 even coming into now. So. But yeah, you got the new album.
11:04
Freedom Infinite
Yeah.
11:05
DJ Iron Mike
And so, you know, let's talk about. We've been talking about growth and progression and everything. What was your biggest challenge? You said the new. The new album doesn't sound anything like the last one. That was your best compliment. So what was the biggest challenge? You know, creating that new sound for this album.
11:20
Freedom Infinite
All right, so went crazy on this album as far as, like, production and engineering. Like, we wanted to really show y' all that this was, you know, what. What were trying to do with the music and what it was probably started putting DJ Scratches and the New School sound. So it's like trying to implement that and make it sound like it belongs together. And then on top of that is, like I said, not trying to rap about the same thing I rapped about last time in my last album and, you know, keep it to where I wanted. I wanted to get a different crowd than I reached in the last one. The last one was basically for the nerd culture. This one's for the nerd culture, too, but this is also for anybody to listen to.
12:23
DJ Iron Mike
Okay.
12:24
Freedom Infinite
So it was more of trying to blend in the lyricism with the more mainstream flows and all of this stuff. It was okay, basically. And then the real hardest part was. Was. Was when I got locked up and then straight up getting out and having to get back in that.
12:48
DJ Iron Mike
Get back into the mode.
12:49
Freedom Infinite
I'm telling you, when I got locked up, like, the day I got out, I chilled. The next day, I was in the studio.
12:56
DJ Iron Mike
Nice.
12:56
Freedom Infinite
Straight up. I no lie, I was in the studio. Went straight to the booth.
13:00
DJ Iron Mike
So what? Why was that?
13:02
Freedom Infinite
Come on, now. I was gone, bro. I was hungry, bro. You know, I like, Like, I didn't want to, you know, get out and get lazy. Yeah. And then, though, because you get in no type of situations, you get out, you being a whole different mindset, just, you know, that depression set in for. For real. For real. So, you know, I had to get active. I was just like, you know what? This is not gonna be me. I'm not gonna sit on the bench and. And mope. I was like, yo, I did what I did, you know, Got to take the punches and keep it rolling. So once I got back in the studio, and that was. Matter of fact, that day, I got back in the studio, the next day, one of the show. Yeah, matter of fact, it was the.
13:48
Freedom Infinite
It was the same shame Sunday show.
13:50
DJ Iron Mike
Okay.
13:51
Freedom Infinite
Like, well, and then.
13:53
DJ Iron Mike
Oh, yeah, that first scene.
13:54
Freedom Infinite
Yeah. At the Porthouse.
13:56
DJ Iron Mike
Yeah, yeah. Okay.
14:02
Freedom Infinite
Yep. Like, that was like, then what? I'm telling you, I went in from that there. I just went all the way in. Just.
14:10
DJ Iron Mike
Yeah. Cuz I. I remember when. When nerds in the hood dropped you came up for that and you said, I already got the next one halfway done.
14:17
Freedom Infinite
Yep. I'm telling you, we was like. Like, when we done Nerds, I was just like, all right, cool. The album done, I was just like, let's not get lazy, like, again. You know, people done with a project, they getting them slumps, right? And they just. Oh, you know, the album out. And now I could just sit back and relax. No, no, guys, it's.
14:35
DJ Iron Mike
Well, if you don't.
14:36
Freedom Infinite
He not hopping out the seat, but.
14:39
DJ Iron Mike
I know y' all can't see what's going on in the studio, but we.
14:41
Freedom Infinite
Gotta try to hop out the seat.
14:43
DJ Iron Mike
We got a little free. Free junior in the building. How old is he now?
14:47
Freedom Infinite
About to be one.
14:48
DJ Iron Mike
About to be one. Oh, man. Man, that time flies, doesn't he, man?
14:53
Freedom Infinite
Like, like, I'm telling you, we just got busy, though. Like, like, you know, I'm done with this last. I'm done with this album. I could tell y', all I'm done with the next project that already that's supposed to drop. Yeah, I could tell you pretty much.
15:07
DJ Iron Mike
Doing it like the Star wars trilogies. You Know where they're, like, halfway done with the next one by the time.
15:12
Freedom Infinite
This is not. This. This one has nothing to do with the nerd.
15:15
DJ Iron Mike
Okay? So this is totally different.
15:17
Freedom Infinite
Yeah, like. Like, people know what I'm talking about. You know, when I say I'm not going to say the name, they know what it is. So, like. Like, Infinite Family got some stuff going on.
15:29
DJ Iron Mike
Okay, so what, are we gonna get the. We're gonna get the compilation album or something? No, Nothing like that.
15:34
Freedom Infinite
No.
15:35
DJ Iron Mike
Okay.
15:35
Freedom Infinite
No, we ain't doing no complication. And, you know, we're not no collective. We just. Yeah, No, I wouldn't.
15:40
DJ Iron Mike
No, got you.
15:41
Freedom Infinite
We're not doing that.
15:42
DJ Iron Mike
All right, well, we got more new music. I got. You know, of course, I got some juice, I got some new 3am, some new convo, and I guess we'll play that. We'll play that. Your new joint off of. Of Revenge of the Nerds before we come back.
15:55
Freedom Infinite
The video supposed to come out, man, soon.
15:58
DJ Iron Mike
All right, so let's get back into the music. You Listen to WKNC 88.1 FM, DJ Iron Mike, Freedom Infinite, Lil Free, Courtney Edge in the building. Let's get into it.
[Intermission]
16:14
DJ Iron Mike
What's going on, everybody? It's your boy, DJ Iron Mike. You were just listening to Black Bruce Wayne by my homie, Freedom Infinite, who's in the building with me right now.
16:30
Freedom Infinite
Yes. Yes. Yes. That's a dope record, man. Video coming soon.
16:33
DJ Iron Mike
Channel some Danny Brown energy in that, man. Like, we. We always talk about Danny Brown.
16:39
Freedom Infinite
Danny Brown, man, y'all. Y' all slipping. One of the most lit performers ever.
16:45
DJ Iron Mike
Yeah, for sure, man.
16:46
Freedom Infinite
Hey, dog. Hey,
16:50
DJ Iron Mike
But, yeah, man, definitely. Definitely feeling that track. That's off the new album, Revenge of the Nerds that released that dropped in December, right?
16:59
Freedom Infinite
Christmas.
17:00
DJ Iron Mike
Yes. Okay. As they would call it, Saturnalias. The Romans called it.
17:07
Freedom Infinite
Whatever.
17:07
DJ Iron Mike
Yeah, but, yeah, man, we're actually just right about out of time. But just let the people know how they can get in touch with you. Social media, all that.
17:18
Freedom Infinite
Freedom Infinite everywhere, bro. Social media, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. You want to holla at me. Personal Facebook, Freedom J. Smith, Freedom Infinity, either or you want to find me on my music, you can find it on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, whatever. Freedom Infinite. You just type that in, I'm there. You ever want to link up, hit me up. Let's work. It ain't hard to reach me. I’m not gonna tell you to talk to my manager when I'm right beside you. I'm not gonna do none of that. I promise you. Brad, what they tell you about me is not true, man. I'm very easy to talk to. As long as you're not fake, but.
18:02
DJ Iron Mike
But that's another story. You're good people. You've always been good to me. You've always been good to the station.
18:07
Freedom Infinite
And you were the first person to open the door to me on some stuff like this.
18:13
DJ Iron Mike
Yeah.
18:13
Freedom Infinite
Like, so I like you and DJ Sam's, all the other peoples that like, bro, I, I, I hold y' all in high regard forever. So when I see y', all, it's always gonna be love, man. Plus, you help me on, you put me on some money.
18:25
DJ Iron Mike
Yeah.
18:25
Freedom Infinite
Once you put me on some money in this music, bro. You know, it's always.
18:28
DJ Iron Mike
It's always like that.
18:29
Freedom Infinite
Yeah. Yeah.
18:30
DJ Iron Mike
To the end. Well, thanks for coming up, man. Courtney, thank you for coming up. Little free. Thank you for coming up. Everybody was listening. Thanks for tuning in. I'll be back next week with Ty Harris, who will be releasing his new album. He'll obviously be doing his album release show that day next.
18:46
Freedom Infinite
And guess what. Guess who's performing on his album release.
18:49
DJ Iron Mike
Who's gonna be out there? Who's gonna be there? I'm actually on maybe somebody named Freedom Infinite.
18:52
Freedom Infinite
Yeah, I think I'm on his. I think I'm on his set, and I think I'm on JL set.
18:56
DJ Iron Mike
Okay.
18:56
Freedom Infinite
All right.
18:56
DJ Iron Mike
Yeah, you on.
18:57
Freedom Infinite
Might as well just be a performer of the show.
18:59
DJ Iron Mike
Might as well be on the show. Yeah.
19:00
Freedom Infinite
Yeah.
19:00
DJ Iron Mike
But if you want to catch up with what we're doing on social media, you can always shoot. Check out WKNC 88.1 on Instagram and Twitter. Also, go and buy yourself some tickets to Double Barrel benefit happening on February 1st and 2nd. We got a dope lineup, especially on the hip hop night. We got Young Bull and Ambala out there, man. Bala. That is the homie. Young Bulls, definitely the homies came out with us to Atlanta for a 3C. Those guys are amazing right now, so. But, yeah, go and buy those tickets. That is what keeps the station running. That is our operating budget right there. So go and help us out if you like it, if you enjoy what you hear. So once again, everybody, thank you for tuning in. I am DJ Iron Mike. I will see y' all next week. Peace.