RICH YUNG UPDATE: Freck Billionaire - INTERVIEW x SIXSHOT.COM

With a name like Freck Billionaire you better have some skills not to mention dough to back it up. Lucky for him the West Philly native has both in abundance. A fixture on the mixtape scene for a few years now Freck’s buzz has been hot but now it seems to be coming to a boil. The long awaited Street Fam compilation album led by Brooklyn lyricist Fabolous is on the way, a Gangsta Grillz is in the works, and Freck has just inked a deal with boxing champion Floyd Mayweather’s Philty Rich record label.

Floyd, wanting to use Freck’s expertise in running the company also made him the Co-CEO along with handing him that advance money as an artist. With Beanie, Freeway, and Gillie a little quiet on the music front as of late it looks like there might be a new contender for the king of Philly and Freck is up to the challenge.

Sixshot.Com’s Jon Michael caught up with Freck Billionaire to discuss his past record deals, the Street Fam album, and how he signed to Floyd Mayweather.

Sixshot.Com: All right Freck, you’ve been buzzing for a while now and it just seems to keep getting stronger and stronger. Why would you say that is?

Freck Billionaire: I’m a student of the game man. First and foremost, I’m a student to the game. From the dudes that I idolized like the Biggie’s, the Jay-Z’s, the Mase’s I learned that number one they’re all lyricists and I consider myself a lyricist but they also have a presence about them. I could have a presence without even dropping a CD. That’s why I like to have my whole game together. I got my car game together. You gotta be livin’ what you’re rhymin’. If you’re livin’ what you’re rhymin’ then people respect that and you’re gonna have that buzz in the streets. People are constantly talking about you. They call me billionaire. I’m mingling with Tommy Hilfiger. I’m mingling with Floyd Mayweather. I’m over here with this dude or that dude. I’m with dudes who own Fortune 500 companies. I try to keep myself relevant and keep that celebrity status. Nowadays what a lot of people don’t know is that it’s like thirty percent about the music and seventy percent everything else so I’m just trying to run my business the best way possible.

Sixshot.Com: You mentioned that being a lyricist is important to you, which you don’t hear from a lot of rappers from this generation. Why is it important to you?

Freck Billionaire: It’s important because those are the roots that I came from. I’m my hardest critic and I want to be in competition with guys like Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Fabolous and that’s just to name a few. I always wanted to be in the upper echelon of lyricists with dudes like them. These are the dudes that I want to be able to hang on a track with. They bring everything from the storytelling to that fly shit. If you’re a lyricist people can really sit there and listen to your music and call it classic instead of being an overnight fly by night artist. Not to knock what anybody else is doing because I believe there’s a million ways to skin a cat. Plus I’m an East Coast artist and no disrespect to the South but the East Coast was built on lyrics. In the South they got their swag and the party joints and whatnot. My whole thing is based around my lyrics and going bar for bar with anybody out there. They call me Mr. Bar for Bar so that’s my main selling point.

Sixshot.Com: You had a couple of situations in the past that didn’t work out such as with the Trackmasters. Did you ever get discouraged when a situation didn’t work out?

Freck Billionaire: I could honestly say that the first situation I had which was with the Trackmasters was disappointing when it didn’t work. I was fresh off the street. I was signed for about four or five months with the Trackmasters and with L.A. Reid. L.A. was working the Usher project when Usher had out “Yeah” with Ludacris. It was around that time. I was discouraged because the deal ended abruptly for me and it was something that I was really looking forward to. I did a joint with Tamia and it was her single. We did a video and everything. I had a joint with Omarion that I was gonna use to capitalize off the exposure I was getting with Tamia’s single. I was gonna use that to pop off but then L.A. Reid got fired and my single and my whole deal just collapsed.

It was really discouraging until I got to the point where I’m at now where I’m so strong that I could bounce back from everything. It was a blessing in disguise. Anything negative that happens I feel that people should try and put that positive spin on it. To fully answer your question it was disappointing but looking back I don’t think that I was really fully developed and ready to drop an album at that time anyway.

Sixshot.Com: At what point did you get up with Clue, Fab, and the whole Street Fam?

Freck Billionaire: I actually knew them before I started rapping. I used to deal with Foxy and Gavin back in the day before I was rapping. I used to party heavy so they would come down to Philly and see me, this young kid kinda flashy. They would just fuck with us because we were hood niggas. I used to go to Brooklyn a lot and stay at the Marriot and we would all go to club Cheetah and Chaos when they were still open. They saw us everywhere so I stepped to Fab and told him that I looked up to his music. What happened was I went to jail and I started writing rhymes and Fab knew me before I was rapping so he knew my personality and all that. The fact that Fab knew me and I was hot made people embrace me even more. I was a familiar face. I wasn’t just coming to be on some rap shit all of a sudden.

Sixshot.Com: So Freck, how important would you say you are to Philly hip-hop right now?

Freck Billionaire: I feel like I’m the most important part of Philadelphia hip-hop right now because I’m giving people a broader horizon. I say that because when people come up to me the first things that they tell me are that I don’t look like an average Philly artist and that I don’t sound like an average Philly artist. There are a lot of stereotypes about artists out of Philly and I don’t fit them so I consider myself a big piece of the puzzle.

I’m gonna be the biggest artist since Will Smith to come out of West Philadelphia. I’m gonna get my city the shine and the attention that it deserves to get. I’m gonna get some things going over here. It’s about doing things for my city and for the youth. It starts with the music and ends with everything else. I’m one of the most important factors right now because I look past the music. I want to bring my city up with me. Above and beyond hip-hop, you know what I’m sayin’?

Sixshot.Com: The big news lately has been that you singed to Floyd Mayweather. Can you tell us about that?

Freck Billionaire: Shout out to the pretty boy first and foremost. You know me and him get along man, young and rich. I got arrested this year and they were trying to say that I was trafficking drugs and that I was selling drugs to an undercover cop in New Jersey. They locked me up and I had four or five warrants so they were holding me down for a while. When I called home to Philly people were telling me that the nigga Floyd Mayweather was as the radio station and he was saying that if anybody could find Freck Billionaire that he had a check for him. I’m believing it but I’m kinda not believing it at the same time.

I know I’m good enough for somebody to say that about but Floyd is a real talented and busy guy. I felt like people were just trying to cheer me up. I came home and I found out it was true. A few months later his people reached out to my manager. We talked on the phone on a Friday. The next day he flew me out to Vegas and we just made it happen. He’s an extremely generous man and he gave me more than any label out there could give me. I got more advance money than you’re average artists who’s sold two or three million copies. It’s a beautiful situation for me man.

You’re also the Co-CEO. Is that true?

Freck Billionaire: He didn’t want to make it like he was just bringing me in as an artist which is the best part of the situation is how much control I have whether it’s creative or otherwise. He wants me to run the label and also run myself so I got a deal and a job. I talk about a lot of shit that he could relate to but on the same token I do music and he does boxing. He trusted me enough to come on board the ship and still run my own project so it’s a blessing man. Once my project gets off the ground we’re gonna be looking for new artists at Philthy Rich. We’re about changing lives man.

Sixshot.Com: Give us the run down Freck. What could we be looking forward to?

Freck Billionaire: We got the deal with Amalgam Digital on the table right now. That’s coming out in March or April. We gonna call that the Money Machine and that’s gonna be everywhere. Coming up right behind that is the Street Fam project which is me, Paul Cain, Red Café, and last but definitely not least my man Fabolous. That’s coming through Def Jam around April or May. That’s gonna be called Family Ties but we kinda going back and forth between the names, you know what I’m sayin’? Late summer or early fall you can expect my debut album and it’s gonna be a classic. I been working on it all my life, well since I started rapping. I got a Gangsta Grillz coming out sometime soon. I’m always in the studio pumping out music. My goal is to give the people the best music the most frequently without compromising myself.

Sixshot.Com: Anything you’d like to say to all your fans out there?

Freck Billionaire: First off Jay I want to thank you and Sixshot.Com for taking the time out to interview me. I appreciate that. I just want to thank all the fans for supporting me. I’m gonna keep going hard. I’m gonna keep fifty thousand in the pocket at all times. I’m gonna keep doing thing bar for bar. For those that haven’t listened yet give me an ear. Give me your undivided attention for a minute and I’m gonna win you over man. I’m coming for the title man.