Twitter: @yeahfreshie, @tezoforprezo
I'm From Cleveland had the chance to sit down with Freshie to discuss his and Tezo's up and coming release of their full-length sequel release to their joint EP On The Humble. The original project came out over a year ago. We talk in-depth about how the new project will be released, why they (Freshie & Tezo) decided to go with one single producer for the project, what Freshie has learned from working with Tezo and more! Full interview is below along with the link to the official video for "2 Seater" which features 55Bagz.
1.) When can we expect the EP to be released? “There’s no exact date. We were trying to go for March 20th because that’s Tez’s birthday and 20 is my lucky number actually. So I always try to drop on the 20th, but just know it’s coming really soon. There's no exact date.” 2.) Who will be featured on the project? “On the first project we had 55Bagz. On this new one we got a feature with Key. It’s not a major surprise everyone kinda knew that. The song with Key is called “Safe.” Both videos coming soon too!” 3.) What kind of promotional roll out are you guys thinking about for this release? “We’re really just gonna like fuck the internet up for real. As many blogs as possible. I always fucked with illroots so I’ve been trying to get us on there. Just anything we can touch like XXL, Daily Chiefers, I'm From Cleveland, and Animal House. Any and everybody we mess with on the local side. Local Blogs forsure.” 4.) How do you plan to release the project? Will it be like On The Humble and be released on Soundcloud, or will it be available on all the streaming platforms? “This is actually going to be the actual album… The first three songs were to see if people liked the fact of me and Tez working together. We obviously see it’s been doing nothing, but great so we were like let’s do an actual album. So we just added three more tracks and just make it an actual album. It’ll be on all streaming services because the first one is only on Soundcloud. That was just really three songs that we just dropped it wasn’t even supposed to be this. It turned into this because of those three songs. It was the tester and it’ll be everywhere so you’ll see it on Youtube, videos on Worldstar, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal. Everywhere possible. 5.) Will the project be named “On The Humble 2?” “We might call it 'Too Humble.' I don’t know because we feel like 'On The Humble' we was on the humble. We were just doing the EP. Tez being who he is working with me and just like me being who I am working with him it’s just a humble experience to be able to be in. We’re all able to link and work on music. Even with Springz... I can’t forget about Springz, but like no one was really kinda noticing who he was at first and obviously he had his own thing going for himself, but us being who we are as rappers being like “we gonna mess with somebody who no one really knows about from the city.” That whole thing was just us being humble. Tez, he a real humble guy, but I’m always saying “fuck being humble.” I definitely show respect, but I feel like I haven’t been nowhere. Tez might have been places I haven’t been or done things I haven’t done so I be like I don’t have a reason to be humble right now. I really call it “Too Humble.” The first one we were just a little too humble. This time around we gotta let people know. It’s good to be humble at the same time you can’t be too humble. We gotta tell people why we’re here, how did we get here, what we got here for, and what we’re trying to accomplish from being here… We’re talking a little bit more shit!” 6.) Why did you & Tezo choose exclusively to work with Springz on all the beats? “Springz and Tez already had a relationship. They already kinda had a chemistry. Me and Tez, we didn’t really have a chemistry so I feel like Springz was our mixture. He was the reason we were able to collaborate on the same music because me and Tez ironically kinda got different music. We kinda make different music based on the age groups and experiences. Springz was that medium that like we both just rocked with. I brought some producers up some beats up. He (Tezo) brought some beats up, but Springz was the one we meshed with. With no one really knowing him it made it better because we were able to capitalize on that sound. He’s apart of our family too. We’re in close courters with him and who he’s managed by and stuff like that with Taylor. That’s big bro. It’s just a family thing. We’re all working together…” 7.) How would you describe the dynamic and relationship you have with Tezo? “It’s just like real life big brother. Like I mentioned earlier I don’t have no big brother so when it comes to this music shit I really take seriously. More than most people. I probably take it more serious than your average rapper, singer, producer. I take it way more serious. For Tez to really kinda understand me on that and not grow with me he understands me off the rip with my energy. For one he gives me the leeway that I need for my creativeness. He never tried to like bash me or like make me do something or he always got open ears. Then he’s just the realest nigga I ever met when it comes to this music. He always gave me nothing but knowledge. Since the first day I met him told me things I could be doing and should be doing. You can’t do nothing but respect that. That’s an OG and he’s a legend. Tezo for prezo! He a legend and for him to be my closest friend and compadre on this music shit he don’t do nothing but inspire me and make me smarter. That’s our relationship is him being my big brother…” 8.) Working with Tezo what have you learned from him or implemented into your music and creative process? “Really I think honestly I’m influenced by myself. To be real honest with you I didn’t really take anything from him musically. I think he more so learned from me which I mean in the most respectful way. I think he kinda learned how to record certain techniques from me because he’s in a bigger position than I am so he’s in a different realm. I’m more so still in creative space where I’m just like flowing free and being free. On the freestyle tip like one thing Tez does he’ll freestyle a melody. He’ll mumble then he’ll go back and fill in the words. That’s something I took from that, but I don’t really do that. I’ve learned that what I could do. He helped me on my freestyles and that’s how we did “On The Humble.” It was all freestyles. Nothing was written so we just went in… To go back on that last question, I didn’t really speak on, but the main thing I learned from Tez was business. I already the music part down pact…. I think he learned a lot working with me because I kinda more so had the creative control over the music like the mixing and how stuff was structured. He kinda really gave that to me on the humble. Even when it came to features we discussed everything together he more so gave me the leeway to like make the decisions because we worked with my engineer… He was trusting my judgment. Just him being a good dude and trusting my judgment. I trust his judgment on things he said in the song which you know I let him do cause Tez crazy on the hooks. The business side I learned a lot just working with him. Just like being on top of your business, streaming, and how to make money from music. I taught him too. We taught each other…” 9.) What’s your favorite song from the first project? “ I think ‘Play It Cool.’ I mean I like all three of them. They’re all crazy because I was surprised at myself for just freestyling. I was out of my comfort zone. Tez was having us come to Bulkley House. So it was just different. Then we had people there like Dubo was coming and Tez was in there. I was just nervous. Then my people were coming through with their friends. I mean I ain’t no scary person. I’m gonna get the job done. It was just a different situation. So for me to have those verses come out of that situation like even headache… I think ‘Play It Cool” was my favorite verse because when niggas heard that when I was doing it they was like ‘damn! This shit gonna a banger.’ It was perfect. I would be listening back like ‘damn I freestyled that. That shit was crazy!’ 10.) With the added three tracks to the project what do you think of them? “The new three ain’t got shit on the old three. Naw the new three fire tho. The new three more turn’t. I mean I’m gonna let the people decide that, but me personally the new three ain’t got shit on the old three.” 11.) What do you want listeners to take away from "On The Humble Too Humble?" “I want them to know collaboration is good. People should collab more. Collabs are about to be what’s next… You’re gonna start to seeing DJ’s more so collabing in shows and mixes. Watch I guarantee it. Collabing is what’s about to be the new thing. Producers should collab that’s how you make better beats. Videographers should collab that’s how you make better videos. Rappers should collab that’s how you make better music. All in all, I just want people to understand the power of collaboration and for rappers in Cleveland to understand just because you might have a certain stature you feel about yourself or the city may feel about you don’t mean you can’t do music with somebody else that’s trying to be in that same stature… If you see another aspiring rapper from your city that fuck with your music and that look up to you or just respects you as an artist y’all need to collab. No matter if its money involved or not. People should collab especially artist that people don’t expect, but should expect. People didn’t expect me and Tez to collab, but y’all should. We from the same city. We know the same people. We should and that’s what we made happen… Do shit together. Especially Cleveland we need to do shit like that…” 12.) What collaborations do you want to see happen? “I wanna see a Ripp Flamez and 55Bagz EP. I want to see a Fame and Fly Tye EP. I wanna see Big Holly and Chip Tha Ripper do an EP. That would be hard. Cap (Young Cap) and Majik, the two white boys they need to do an EP. They always been going hard. Their just needs to be collabs. I wanna Lo Life collab with somebody, but he just need to drop his project. That’s one of my favorite rappers.” 13.) What do you think of current Cleveland Music and how do you feel about it? “I mean it’s lit! Definitely lit right now. There’s so many rappers it’s hard for me to really think of everybody… It’s lit from Q Money, to Chxpo, Bagz, Tez, Me. Everybody’s turning up! … I feel like only thing that needs to happen is more collaborations. It really comes from the DJ’s though I feel. If the DJ’s would just make way more collaboration mixtapes more artist would feel the need to do songs with each other for that purpose. They used to have 'Bitch I’m from Cleveland' ‘s but we don’t have that anymore. We got the “Cosign” but every year or two. Their needs to be a mixtape every month. Just Cleveland. Somebody or a DJ needs to work with more DJ’s just making mixtapes all the time dropping them bitches on Spinrilla…. We grew up with music so you gotta have music for people damn near everyday. I grew up in different periods of Lil Wayne’s music like different periods of Gucci’s music so I’m not just about to stay stuck to one catalogue of music. Try to give people more! There’s no way their can’t be a music everyday.” 14.) Would you say and agree a lot of people have put their ego’s aside in Cleveland? “Hell yeah! Everybody’s starting to understand it. That’s not the only thing it’s going to take, but that is part of it. You have to understand who is who. You’re not just gonna work with anybody, but you understand who is who and make sure everything is right between y’all and then people just make shit happen now. I think it is better than it’s ever been. It’s gonna only get better. It can never get worse. It’s way better than when Royalty Camp was out here. They had it lit, but they obviously didn’t do something right. One thing about it is everybody wasn’t working towards one thing. They all had their own thing. You can’t get everybody to do just one thing so I think it’s now just more people in the game linking up. Now you got these five people from Cleveland pushing rather than just one group of them.” 15.) Who are some artist from Cleveland that you’re currently listening to? “Lo Life Lane, 55Bagz, Chxpo, Doe Boy, Q Money, Ripp Flamez, Tezo, Lil Cray, Big Bank Holly, Richie Auto, Foreign Jay, Pn Jon… Niggas from Cleveland hard! PressPlay MJ got his stuff going. I wish Tae Miles would come back out along with Bankie too. AHHH AND JUSTER!!! Aviator Ju. I don’t give a fuck! My nigga Ju. That’s all I’m gonna say. T&R. Make sure you put that in there.” 16.) What else do you have coming up? What can we expect from Freshie? “I got an EP “On The Humble Too Humble,” “SuperLo 2 DirtyLo” with me and Lo Life Lane, but that’s just two collabs with rappers I’m just trying to show people like I said it’s the power of collaboration (SuperLo 2 has since released). I ain’t just trying to collab with just rappers I’m also collabing with a clothing brand “Mi” by Caij Milan. They can go get that at NEXT in Beachwood. Me and him was working music similar to how Virgil did with Uzi on Off-White…. Just collabing and a lot of features. I just wanna keep dropping music and being lit. I’m really into these clothes a lot. It’s a bitter sweet thing because I like expensive clothes. I just want everybody to stay true to themselves. Shout out to my family. My momma she always held me down. My Pops he’s always been my pops. Shit other than that I think people already know what to expect from me. I never slowed down. People are just now catching up. I been rapping since I was eight and I always knew where I was gonna be at! For the people that don’t know the shit on my face is my face tats. The Chinese writing means “passion” and the other side is for death. Just passion over death. I feel like that’s my only two options are either you’re gonna be passionate about what you do or you gonna end up dead. Either from the streets or being a bum in life. That’s not my goal. I’m trying to be where I always see myself. It’s not about being famous or rich it’s just being successful in this business… I got a lot of merch and a website coming. This my year and I feel like I’m just gonna really let people know who I am. The country gonna know. I’m gonna say lil dirty be on XXL 2020. That’s my lucky number too so just watch. Y’all probably get a mixtape 2020! …” Shout out I’m From Cleveland you already know! I fuck with I’m From Cleveland. Y’all always show love and post everything. I fuck with that! I love I’m From Cleveland because I’m from Cleveland.
1.) When can we expect the EP to be released? “There’s no exact date. We were trying to go for March 20th because that’s Tez’s birthday and 20 is my lucky number actually. So I always try to drop on the 20th, but just know it’s coming really soon. There's no exact date.” 2.) Who will be featured on the project? “On the first project we had 55Bagz. On this new one we got a feature with Key. It’s not a major surprise everyone kinda knew that. The song with Key is called “Safe.” Both videos coming soon too!” 3.) What kind of promotional roll out are you guys thinking about for this release? “We’re really just gonna like fuck the internet up for real. As many blogs as possible. I always fucked with illroots so I’ve been trying to get us on there. Just anything we can touch like XXL, Daily Chiefers, I'm From Cleveland, and Animal House. Any and everybody we mess with on the local side. Local Blogs forsure.” 4.) How do you plan to release the project? Will it be like On The Humble and be released on Soundcloud, or will it be available on all the streaming platforms? “This is actually going to be the actual album… The first three songs were to see if people liked the fact of me and Tez working together. We obviously see it’s been doing nothing, but great so we were like let’s do an actual album. So we just added three more tracks and just make it an actual album. It’ll be on all streaming services because the first one is only on Soundcloud. That was just really three songs that we just dropped it wasn’t even supposed to be this. It turned into this because of those three songs. It was the tester and it’ll be everywhere so you’ll see it on Youtube, videos on Worldstar, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal. Everywhere possible. 5.) Will the project be named “On The Humble 2?” “We might call it 'Too Humble.' I don’t know because we feel like 'On The Humble' we was on the humble. We were just doing the EP. Tez being who he is working with me and just like me being who I am working with him it’s just a humble experience to be able to be in. We’re all able to link and work on music. Even with Springz... I can’t forget about Springz, but like no one was really kinda noticing who he was at first and obviously he had his own thing going for himself, but us being who we are as rappers being like “we gonna mess with somebody who no one really knows about from the city.” That whole thing was just us being humble. Tez, he a real humble guy, but I’m always saying “fuck being humble.” I definitely show respect, but I feel like I haven’t been nowhere. Tez might have been places I haven’t been or done things I haven’t done so I be like I don’t have a reason to be humble right now. I really call it “Too Humble.” The first one we were just a little too humble. This time around we gotta let people know. It’s good to be humble at the same time you can’t be too humble. We gotta tell people why we’re here, how did we get here, what we got here for, and what we’re trying to accomplish from being here… We’re talking a little bit more shit!” 6.) Why did you & Tezo choose exclusively to work with Springz on all the beats? “Springz and Tez already had a relationship. They already kinda had a chemistry. Me and Tez, we didn’t really have a chemistry so I feel like Springz was our mixture. He was the reason we were able to collaborate on the same music because me and Tez ironically kinda got different music. We kinda make different music based on the age groups and experiences. Springz was that medium that like we both just rocked with. I brought some producers up some beats up. He (Tezo) brought some beats up, but Springz was the one we meshed with. With no one really knowing him it made it better because we were able to capitalize on that sound. He’s apart of our family too. We’re in close courters with him and who he’s managed by and stuff like that with Taylor. That’s big bro. It’s just a family thing. We’re all working together…” 7.) How would you describe the dynamic and relationship you have with Tezo? “It’s just like real life big brother. Like I mentioned earlier I don’t have no big brother so when it comes to this music shit I really take seriously. More than most people. I probably take it more serious than your average rapper, singer, producer. I take it way more serious. For Tez to really kinda understand me on that and not grow with me he understands me off the rip with my energy. For one he gives me the leeway that I need for my creativeness. He never tried to like bash me or like make me do something or he always got open ears. Then he’s just the realest nigga I ever met when it comes to this music. He always gave me nothing but knowledge. Since the first day I met him told me things I could be doing and should be doing. You can’t do nothing but respect that. That’s an OG and he’s a legend. Tezo for prezo! He a legend and for him to be my closest friend and compadre on this music shit he don’t do nothing but inspire me and make me smarter. That’s our relationship is him being my big brother…” 8.) Working with Tezo what have you learned from him or implemented into your music and creative process? “Really I think honestly I’m influenced by myself. To be real honest with you I didn’t really take anything from him musically. I think he more so learned from me which I mean in the most respectful way. I think he kinda learned how to record certain techniques from me because he’s in a bigger position than I am so he’s in a different realm. I’m more so still in creative space where I’m just like flowing free and being free. On the freestyle tip like one thing Tez does he’ll freestyle a melody. He’ll mumble then he’ll go back and fill in the words. That’s something I took from that, but I don’t really do that. I’ve learned that what I could do. He helped me on my freestyles and that’s how we did “On The Humble.” It was all freestyles. Nothing was written so we just went in… To go back on that last question, I didn’t really speak on, but the main thing I learned from Tez was business. I already the music part down pact…. I think he learned a lot working with me because I kinda more so had the creative control over the music like the mixing and how stuff was structured. He kinda really gave that to me on the humble. Even when it came to features we discussed everything together he more so gave me the leeway to like make the decisions because we worked with my engineer… He was trusting my judgment. Just him being a good dude and trusting my judgment. I trust his judgment on things he said in the song which you know I let him do cause Tez crazy on the hooks. The business side I learned a lot just working with him. Just like being on top of your business, streaming, and how to make money from music. I taught him too. We taught each other…” 9.) What’s your favorite song from the first project? “ I think ‘Play It Cool.’ I mean I like all three of them. They’re all crazy because I was surprised at myself for just freestyling. I was out of my comfort zone. Tez was having us come to Bulkley House. So it was just different. Then we had people there like Dubo was coming and Tez was in there. I was just nervous. Then my people were coming through with their friends. I mean I ain’t no scary person. I’m gonna get the job done. It was just a different situation. So for me to have those verses come out of that situation like even headache… I think ‘Play It Cool” was my favorite verse because when niggas heard that when I was doing it they was like ‘damn! This shit gonna a banger.’ It was perfect. I would be listening back like ‘damn I freestyled that. That shit was crazy!’ 10.) With the added three tracks to the project what do you think of them? “The new three ain’t got shit on the old three. Naw the new three fire tho. The new three more turn’t. I mean I’m gonna let the people decide that, but me personally the new three ain’t got shit on the old three.” 11.) What do you want listeners to take away from "On The Humble Too Humble?" “I want them to know collaboration is good. People should collab more. Collabs are about to be what’s next… You’re gonna start to seeing DJ’s more so collabing in shows and mixes. Watch I guarantee it. Collabing is what’s about to be the new thing. Producers should collab that’s how you make better beats. Videographers should collab that’s how you make better videos. Rappers should collab that’s how you make better music. All in all, I just want people to understand the power of collaboration and for rappers in Cleveland to understand just because you might have a certain stature you feel about yourself or the city may feel about you don’t mean you can’t do music with somebody else that’s trying to be in that same stature… If you see another aspiring rapper from your city that fuck with your music and that look up to you or just respects you as an artist y’all need to collab. No matter if its money involved or not. People should collab especially artist that people don’t expect, but should expect. People didn’t expect me and Tez to collab, but y’all should. We from the same city. We know the same people. We should and that’s what we made happen… Do shit together. Especially Cleveland we need to do shit like that…” 12.) What collaborations do you want to see happen? “I wanna see a Ripp Flamez and 55Bagz EP. I want to see a Fame and Fly Tye EP. I wanna see Big Holly and Chip Tha Ripper do an EP. That would be hard. Cap (Young Cap) and Majik, the two white boys they need to do an EP. They always been going hard. Their just needs to be collabs. I wanna Lo Life collab with somebody, but he just need to drop his project. That’s one of my favorite rappers.” 13.) What do you think of current Cleveland Music and how do you feel about it? “I mean it’s lit! Definitely lit right now. There’s so many rappers it’s hard for me to really think of everybody… It’s lit from Q Money, to Chxpo, Bagz, Tez, Me. Everybody’s turning up! … I feel like only thing that needs to happen is more collaborations. It really comes from the DJ’s though I feel. If the DJ’s would just make way more collaboration mixtapes more artist would feel the need to do songs with each other for that purpose. They used to have 'Bitch I’m from Cleveland' ‘s but we don’t have that anymore. We got the “Cosign” but every year or two. Their needs to be a mixtape every month. Just Cleveland. Somebody or a DJ needs to work with more DJ’s just making mixtapes all the time dropping them bitches on Spinrilla…. We grew up with music so you gotta have music for people damn near everyday. I grew up in different periods of Lil Wayne’s music like different periods of Gucci’s music so I’m not just about to stay stuck to one catalogue of music. Try to give people more! There’s no way their can’t be a music everyday.” 14.) Would you say and agree a lot of people have put their ego’s aside in Cleveland? “Hell yeah! Everybody’s starting to understand it. That’s not the only thing it’s going to take, but that is part of it. You have to understand who is who. You’re not just gonna work with anybody, but you understand who is who and make sure everything is right between y’all and then people just make shit happen now. I think it is better than it’s ever been. It’s gonna only get better. It can never get worse. It’s way better than when Royalty Camp was out here. They had it lit, but they obviously didn’t do something right. One thing about it is everybody wasn’t working towards one thing. They all had their own thing. You can’t get everybody to do just one thing so I think it’s now just more people in the game linking up. Now you got these five people from Cleveland pushing rather than just one group of them.” 15.) Who are some artist from Cleveland that you’re currently listening to? “Lo Life Lane, 55Bagz, Chxpo, Doe Boy, Q Money, Ripp Flamez, Tezo, Lil Cray, Big Bank Holly, Richie Auto, Foreign Jay, Pn Jon… Niggas from Cleveland hard! PressPlay MJ got his stuff going. I wish Tae Miles would come back out along with Bankie too. AHHH AND JUSTER!!! Aviator Ju. I don’t give a fuck! My nigga Ju. That’s all I’m gonna say. T&R. Make sure you put that in there.” 16.) What else do you have coming up? What can we expect from Freshie? “I got an EP “On The Humble Too Humble,” “SuperLo 2 DirtyLo” with me and Lo Life Lane, but that’s just two collabs with rappers I’m just trying to show people like I said it’s the power of collaboration (SuperLo 2 has since released). I ain’t just trying to collab with just rappers I’m also collabing with a clothing brand “Mi” by Caij Milan. They can go get that at NEXT in Beachwood. Me and him was working music similar to how Virgil did with Uzi on Off-White…. Just collabing and a lot of features. I just wanna keep dropping music and being lit. I’m really into these clothes a lot. It’s a bitter sweet thing because I like expensive clothes. I just want everybody to stay true to themselves. Shout out to my family. My momma she always held me down. My Pops he’s always been my pops. Shit other than that I think people already know what to expect from me. I never slowed down. People are just now catching up. I been rapping since I was eight and I always knew where I was gonna be at! For the people that don’t know the shit on my face is my face tats. The Chinese writing means “passion” and the other side is for death. Just passion over death. I feel like that’s my only two options are either you’re gonna be passionate about what you do or you gonna end up dead. Either from the streets or being a bum in life. That’s not my goal. I’m trying to be where I always see myself. It’s not about being famous or rich it’s just being successful in this business… I got a lot of merch and a website coming. This my year and I feel like I’m just gonna really let people know who I am. The country gonna know. I’m gonna say lil dirty be on XXL 2020. That’s my lucky number too so just watch. Y’all probably get a mixtape 2020! …” Shout out I’m From Cleveland you already know! I fuck with I’m From Cleveland. Y’all always show love and post everything. I fuck with that! I love I’m From Cleveland because I’m from Cleveland.
Be sure to check out Animal Houses exclusive interview with Tezo which releases tomorrow.
