Musically the world knows you for being the front man and mic duty rapper for the infamous C+C Music Factory, Robert and David – you were born and bred in Queens, New York City. What music was filtering through your corridors as a Brooklyn kid that led you down dance music avenue?
I was walking down Fulton Street, in Brooklyn, NY in 1988 or 1989 and I heard Rob Bass “It Takes Two” blaring out of someone’s jeep… I was like, “great idea!” Hip Hop is a hybrid of all musical forms: R&B, Disco, Rock, Soca and Reggae (which is where it originally came from the emcee and DJ aspect anyway). So for me dance music is a part of the musical tree that is world music.
Right now I’m working on Soca music with Soca Stars- 3 Canal, Princess Adana, Bunji Garland, Ronnie Mcintosh, Trilla and others and we are going to collaborate with some major talents in the US music game, names that I will reveal later. Dance music is a part of that thing I’m fascinated with called “MUSIC” but remember that in the 80’s and 90’s in hip hop we all had a dance record on our album: Jungle Brothers, Heavy D, Queen Latifah, Twin Hype out of Jersey, King Sun to name a few.
Tell us about how the association with The Continental Basketball Association came about – what’s your banana cut like out on the court?
Well I am an athlete by choice so I relate to athletes and how they train and exercise and it’s like that with life. When I was in my teens I played intramural basketball at Andrew Jackson High School in Jamaica, NY and we came in first place, so I’ve always appreciated an athlete’s hustle. I had wanted to be involved in sports for several years now and when I read that Spyder D “the hip hop legend” had a basketball team in the ABA in Charlotte called the Krunk, I was like that’s some fly shit right there. All of a sudden I’m on the phone with him and he’s like, “I’m moving the team to Atlanta you wanna be involved?” I said yes and I contacted Kenny Anderson, NBA legend to be the coach. We initially had Johnny Newman, former Knick, but he couldn’t commit, and we signed on Earl Monroe, to be the advisor, and then contacted Vincent Smith (Kenny “the Jet Smith’s” brother from TNT) who coached Kenny, Anderson, Lamar Odom, and a host of other NBA legends to be our GM. We signed the Professor for seat fillers, Zach Marbury (Stephon’s brother) for notoriety and name recognition, and built the team around them and some other great players. I loved every minute of it although it was really difficult work. I negotiated the stadium, ticket sales, hot dogs prices, player’s contracts, INS, and flew my players around the country to compete. I look forward to doing it again in the future. I have a sport in mind but I will discuss that at a later date.
So the music world is looking forward to what looks like the biggest EVER Miami WMC. March 24th sees you headlining ‘Sea To Sun’ where four time Grammy winner Tom Lord-Alge is putting on a private party at his own pad for a select few and some amazing artists – looking forward to it?
Absolutely looking forward to it! Tom Lord Alge is a legend and I have a special place for audio engineers as I was an audio engineer before C&C; I remember him and his brothers Chris and Jeff in the Unique recording studio days when I worked at Quad right around the corner. So yes, to be able to hang with Tom at his pad is really kind fly, and Sea to Sun, that’s my crew and the parties are always off the hook.
What album would you never sell?
I would never sell some my earlier works like the Grace Jones album and I would never sell my early Freedom Williams 12 inches, like the Total Science stuff, and stuff I recorded that I could never get again. That’s for my children…
So C+C – how did that all happen? ‘Gonna Make You Sweat’ a worldwide smash. How did you all team up back there?
I was an engineer in Quad studios and all the great producers came there. I worked on Cameo albums and I still talk to Larry Blackman today – called him last month, by the way. I worked with Jocelyn Brown, Freddie Jackson, Grace Jones, Kool Moe D, Kool and the Gang, Marcus Miller, Luther, Janet, Just-Ice, RZA (Rakeem), Gza (Genius) Melquan and Shabazz and remixed Michael Jackson records, so the studio was my home. I spent 60 plus hours there weekly. Dave Shaw, Fred McFarlane, Barbara Tucker, Boyd Jarvis, M&M, Masters At Work, Todd Terry all the dance greats used Quad and I have been friends with them all for over 20 years.
When I met Rob and Dave I started working with them as well but our relationship went even further, primarily because I wanted to work with David. I thought he was a genius talent and fortunately for me, I got to be very close to him before he passed. I still speak to his mom and his sisters and I visited his mom a few years ago in Atlanta for her birthday so I stay in touch with them a lot… I often consult with her because I still feel close to David’s spirit so anything I have to do with C&C I call her and ask her advice. I think that’s what I should do out of respect for her son and my brother. You know when David passed, I wasn’t talking to him or Robert – mostly Robert, David just got sucked up in Robert’s bullshit.
I never forget we were at the Grammys or something like that and I was in a lawsuit with C&C and momma Cole (David’s mother that’s what I call her) came up to me in the audience and she told me to do what I had to do and tat she loved and respected me, I never forgot that, that was a very human thing to do, and I love her for having that strength which in turn gave me strength. I love David’s family, they are my family – I really have to go see Momma Cole I miss her and the fam.
Tell us about the streets of New York as a teenager – what was it like?
I loved my childhood. I had a great group of brothers who looked after me and made sure I ate and stayed protected, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything in the world. I grew up in the golden era that spawned the golden era of rap in the early 80s; it was tough, but I had a lot of love from the Gods and Earths, and to be honest those were my family: Shahid Allah, Born Allah, Cee Allah, Queen Nayasia, Queen Mecca, Lord Freedom, Supreme, Everlasting Born Justice. The Nation is the greatest. You just had to be there; my brother left lessons on my dresser like Raekwan from Wutang says in his record, it really happened to me. My brother went to college and left 120 on my dresser and I never looked back since. I thank Allah everyday (Clearance13x Smith) leaving Temple number 7.
Giving the youth the tools to understand the difference between Good and Evil, not the TV difference, but the real difference; I sometimes laugh at these cats today, cause they fuckin’ funny, next…
What is your favourite album of the last twelve months?
That’s a tough one. Hmmm, I’m digging a lot of the Sea to Sun stuff, not just because I’m on it but because I listen to a lot of it because I’m always working on it. I do like this last Jay-Z album – it really is a hip hop album, he took it back to the boom bap.
Where and when was the first time you put a mic in your hand and let the world hear what you had?
Probably in a basement party around 12 years old on Murdock Ave, somewhere in Hollis or Cambria Hgts in New York. I might have been at Julie’s birthday party, she must have been like 13 and I remember drinking Manichevitz at the party you know the big ass bottle of wine, and I mixed it with coke and something else and since it was her party I called the drink the Julie. I think I came up with a free style about the drink and her party right there on the spot, but the mic is like a drug it calls you every time. Like Rakim says “I never let the mic magnetize me no more but it’s biting me, fighting me, inviting me to rhyme.” That shit is true.
Ever since I heard my first rap record and emcee I knew that’s what I wanted to do, I got it the first time I heard it and I knew it would be the biggest art form in the world. I’m just glad my peers created it and I got to fulfill a dream of making my heroes become my friends.
The album of the same name also saw you take vocal duties on ‘Things That Make You Go Hmmmm’ amongst others – what was your favourite track you ever appeared on for the boys?
Probably, ‘What’s this Word Called Love.’
You attended Juniuor High school at P.S. 192 located on the famous 205th Avenue in Hollis, Queens – home to some big muthafuckers – Jam Master Jay and LL Cool J hanging out – did you mix with these cool dudes?
Yes, I got a story about Jay and Supreme and Takie in Jackson Heights, NY. Me and Takie was in Jackson looking for Jay because Jay was from Hollis and we was from the Heights. Besides, I went to August Martin, and Takie (I don’t think he went to school) was roaming the halls of Jackson looking for J and we found him and Takie hit ’em with a brick! God bless Jay may he rest in peace.
Now you gotta remember this was like 1980 or 81 way, before we was making records, or at least me – Jay and Run and D came out a few years later. I saw Jay at the garden like in ’93 and he didn’t remember that it was me, cause by this time I had stopped criming and grew a pony tail and changed up a little bit, so now Jay knew me as the rapper dude from C&C so when I reminded him of the situation he couldn’t fuckin’ believe it, he was like “that was you, get the fuck out of here” and every time I would see him he and I would have this unspoken respect for each other because of our past connections.
Back then Jackson was a wild school, I didn’t go to Jackson cause it was so bad, even though it was a few blocks from my house so my dumb ass bussed all the way to South Jamaica, Queens to August Martin, shit was so far I never went to school, and it was actually worse than Jackson, so much for great planning, I was in Jackson everyday anyway, like I went there.
One of your early releases was on Nu-Groove Records in the late eighties with one of my favourite singers ever, Barbara Tucker – what was it like working with her?
I love Barbara… we did a record called ‘Rise to Freedom’. It was an anti-Apartheid South African house record produced by Michael Baker and the Total Science Crew from East New York, Brooklyn. That was when thugs made dance music.
Barbara invited me to perform for Haiti at Webster Hall last month with the Giants in Dance but I was in Trinidad filming a movie. Sorry I couldn’t make it Barbara! I guess I should call her personally, right?
A sad day for the world of music when David died on January 24th 1995 of Spinal Meningitis – where were you when you heard the news?
Remember I wasn’t talking to Robert and David at the time? Although I wanted to talk to David but I couldn’t violate the terms of the law suit. On the day of his funeral I remember I got on a train to Port Authority from Brooklyn and from there caught the bus to Passaic NJ, where his funeral was. It was really sad as I rode the bus through the Passaic hood, all I kept hearing in my head was “how do I say goodbye to what we had, the good times that made us laugh outweigh the bad…and I’ll take with me the memories to be my sunshine after the rain…its so hard to say goodbye to yesterday…” I still hear the Motown artist G.C. Cameron singing the words now. On my way to the funeral it was hard cause I never really got to grow old with David and just be his friend as an adult, I always say “we should all try to live into our old age if for no other reason then to get the chance to undo some of the stupid shit we did as youth and finally get to think maturely and act responsibly.” I have tried with Robert but he is too difficult to deal with and just not there yet, and that’s unfortunate.
Favourite Hip Hop artist ever?
Rakim
Why did you change your name?
When I became a 5% I changed my name to Freedom, which is what you do when you change your thinking (you change your name). I only added Williams on to my name because there was a rock group who was suing me because their name was Freedom and Barbara Pace, who was Rob and Dave’s manager, suggested I add my last government name to it, that way they couldn’t do anything. It had been suggested I change my name from Freedom to something else, but no one realized that it wasn’t a stage name it was a righteous name, so for me that was out of the question. I had worked hard to earn this name and been through a lot to get it and I wasn’t gonna change it for nobody.
Can you tell us about your counseling work with fellow single fathers through the organization Young Fathers and the Real Dads Network. Amazing you do this…
Good question! Well, I have been working with single fathers for about 15 years now. I used to go to the YMCA in the mid nineties and there was a program there for men who were going through the system and weren’t able to see their children for whatever reason. I had been a father since 18 and although my relationship with my son’s mother was absolutely charming, I still understood the pain and suffering my brothers must have felt because I enjoyed my son so much, not being able to see him or be with him the thought was debilitating. I had seen uncles, friends and close family members destroyed through the court system and through the effects that poverty has had on parenting skills, and when I say poverty, I include slavery in that paradigm, because slavery is a form of poverty of the mind, body and soul, and it is the results of slavery that we as a nation are still suffering from when it pertains to parenting rights and such.
So, because I was so fortunate to have my son with me on the road and what not, I knew that my blessing was not by accident. I would go to the YMCA as a celebrity, but more so a brother, in the struggle. I would just go give them support, pat them on the back, give them hugs, listen to their horrifyingly stupid stories of why they couldn’t see or spend time with their children, and it would break my heart. Needless to say that, 10 years later, I would go through the same system and fight for custody of my daughter, who I now share custody of, and I tell you, for a man it’s very difficult. We are almost always looked upon as the victor and not the victim, and it is an uphill battle for us to be fathers, we always have to prove ourselves. I actually have strained relations with some of the females in my immediate family now because of how they perceive men. Can you believe it was told to me by family members that I should just give up my daughter and visit her on the weekends or every other weekend because woman make better parents? Is that not the stupidest shit you ever heard?
It’s a very difficult road to be a single parent. But I love my daughter very much and would stop at nothing to keep her in my life. Little girls need their fathers to be strong and convicted for them to grow up to be decent contributing female members of society.
What one artist now, would you like to get into the studio with and make some music?
Sade we would make a dope album together, classic…
Freedom Williams ‘Party Time (Get Up Get Down)’ is out now on Sea To Sun / Loverush Digital Recordings.