Kendrick Lamar details manger Dave Free’s influence during an interview with Forbes, which features the TDE executive in its 30 Under 30 list.
“It’s more like working with a brother that just so happened to love what I do, too,” Lamar says of Free. “So when you put these two individuals into creative spaces, it’s a different type of chemistry. It’s a different type of bond. It’s a bond that really can’t be broken … whether it’s in the studio or behind the camera. It’s like Voltron.”
Free and Lamar met in high school. Free worked as a computer technician after graduating and also kept working with Lamar.
After getting a call to repair the computer of TDE founder Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith, Free used the time with Top Dawg to play him Lamar’s music.
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Impressed, Tiffith signed Lamar to the label and named Free president of TDE. Free says the subsequent TDE/Aftermath/Interscope deal didn’t drastically alter Lamar’s approach.
“When we came in, he already had music,” Free says of Lamar. “He already had ideas.”
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