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If you don’t know who Freekey Zekey is then get to know him! This flamboyant character has created some Hip Hop history by getting his fam The Diplomats back together!

Hey Freekey Zekey!!

What’s good, what’s good this is …FREEKEY!! YA BOYYY.

How are you?

I’m good I’m good I’m enjoying myself! Happy to be happy! (Laughs)

So, first of all tell us what's meaning behind the name Freeky Zekey?

How did I get the name Freekey? Well first of all I tell the women it’s to be shown not told! You know what I’m saying? (Laughs)  But actually people really relate it to the sexual take because of how it’s pronounced. Buy my name is actually spelt F.r.e.e.k.e.y not F.r.e.a.k.y. It’s Free and Key which also means the fact that I’m unique, different, sort of like how they would say he’s got an eye in the middle of his head he’s a freak. I usually dress different my approach to business is different, my attitude, my swagger is to the far, far, far up north westside of stuff. I freak things in a different way, you might wear your sneakers tied up I might wear mine unlaced, you might wear red and blue, I would wear red and blue mixed in, so you know I do things real different. But….for the ladies also!! Yeah!!! I get busy and I want to get freaky wit cha’….yeah!!

(Laughs) Ok so that explains Freekey Zekey!! Let’s start from the beginning! You're the founding member of The Diplomats how did all that come about?

Well actually Cam’s last name is Giles and my last name is Giles so we’re family. I met Jim Jones when I was in the 3rd grade we both went to summer school together. Through mutual friends we met Juelz Santana but we knew him when he had his pampers on and he used to rip it off and run to the bathroom cause he had a potty! (Laughs) You know what I’m saying? So, it was more like a family affair it wasn’t like we found out that we could link up and make a master unit, we was already family. That’s how we had the phenomenal success that we had because it wasn’t phoney. We originally loved each other so the music came out with that same type of love.

You were not only the CEO of Diplomats Records you were also the hype man and provided the skits on many mixtapes. How and why did you make the transition from CEO/Hype man to recording artist?

I was the President of Diplomats Records, Cam and Jim was the CEO, which is cool. I was doing the skits because I was mainly behind the scenes, everybody had their major roles but Cam and Jim were the artists as well so there had to be someone in the office. There was someone who had to go to the meetings and to stand firm and be the bad guy, while Cam was the good guy you understand what I’m saying? So, I also did the skits, I was the hype man but I also did the hooks! I did the hook to ‘Hey ma’ which was the number 1 single Cam’ron ever had. I did a lot of hook on Cam’s ‘Come Home with Me’ and the ‘Purple Haze’ album. So, I was dabbling in hooks and skits, but with the skits even though it seems like it’s something funny to say you also have to make sure that it’s funny and entertaining enough to put on an album or mixtape. Nobody wants to hear no boring sh*t!!! (Laughs) So, basically that just overlapped into me just becoming an artist also, at that time it wasn’t meant for Freekey Zekey to be an artist it was meant for Freekey Zekey to be the boss business man! In time it just rolled over into the situation where I became an artist and I’m not upset about it! Actually it’s beautiful.

Can you tell us about ‘730 Dips’?

Ok I labelled my entity ‘730 Dips’ because that’s what the doctor says when you go crazy or if you went postal, that’s when they got to put the straight jacket on. It’s like, ‘Oh my God he’s going 730!’ and that’s like my attitude, if you see me on the videos, hear me on the skits see me on stage I’m a wild type of guy and like to make people laugh.. I’m unpredictable, I’ve got a spontaneous attitude so I just kind of parallel it to a crazy guy because people always say, ‘Zek, you’re crazy!’ But when they sit down and talk to me they’re like, ‘What? You’re intellectual’. They’re like, wait a minute he is 730 because you can’t just turn that on and off. A lot of people don’t know how to do that and like I always tell the people that are younger than me that, ‘Smart guys can play stupid but a stupid guy can’t play smart!’ (Laughs) Always learn what you got to do because there’s a time and place for everything. So, yeah that’s why I call my crew ‘730’.

Back in 2006 you were incarcerated and The Diplomats went their separate ways after being really successful, they've had their beefs, but this year you got them back together. Can you tell us about that and why this was important for you to get the crew back together?

Ok, the infinity, they’re family there’s nothing that can tear us away from our heart. I couldn’t believe it, at the time I was incarcerated cause they allegedly said that I was providing the whole North Carolina with ecstasy pills which was a crock of sh*t!!...a lil bit…(Laughs) Ok, back to the question! I heard the story from Cam about how Jim wasn’t doing things right as far with the money. Then I was hearing from Jim saying Cam wasn’t doing things right about the paperwork. I just sat there and said, ‘What does that have to do with anything? You know? What did that have to do with you not going over to his house to see his mother or sons or vice versa? So you are mad at paper, paper money and paperwork that can both get ripped in half our hearts can’t you understand what I’m saying? So they’re both hard headed, they’re got big NFL football kind of head so I kept knocking at, knocking at it until it started to make sense. I pulled both of them by their ears! ‘Get over here!!’ (Laughs) and they sat down and they talked and realised what they were doing was actually stupid! So now they’re back together, Me, Cam, Jim, Juelz and we did a song called ‘Salute’ which is AMAZING!! I’m at the end talking CRAZY!! I got that all set up and now the ball is rolling. We’re about to shoot a video for it and we’re going to get back to action. It’s a beautiful thing I enjoy it and I love it.

Ohh yeah there’s one thing I just wanted to say….I got a new a.k.a its Freekey Zekey A.K.A Freekey ‘Crazy Glue’. I get things stuck back together! You know what I mean? I got my boys The Diplomats together, that was Freekey Crazy Glue!

So, Freekey ‘Crazy Glue’ what was it like for you all just getting back in the studio and recording again?

Well actually it was exciting because not only am I the President of Diplomats Records I’m also a fan! Because these people that I’ve worked with are phenomenal. Cam’ron’s music; he’s intelligent, plus he’s got a mean flow. Juelz all the ladies love the baby face you what I’m saying? With the dimples! Who spits that liquid CRACK!! Jim; he’s the thuggy rough, no shape up bearded, get out his way he’s crazy! But once you meet him he’s the loveable type of guy. Me, I’m just all round BANANAS!! So, seeing that back together is great because I’m a fan myself. I love it, being there was like watching it all for the first time again and everybody felt like that. As soon as someone got in the booth you were all hype, the studio was quite, it was like, ‘Oh SH*T!!’ (Laughs) Once the song was done everybody was sitting there on their tippy toes like, ‘I want to hear it again!!’ It was beautiful I felt like a kid in a candy store.

Wow so thanks to you Freekey, Diplomats are back!! I think Dipset brings colour to Hip Hop, I feel that, that colourfulness has been missing in Hip Hop is this what you wanted to bring back with The Diplomats?

Yeah I would have to agree with that because usually I don’t, but now that you worded it that way I would have to agree. At first I would say that Hip Hop is not missing anything, people have got to understand that Hip Hop is evolving. People don’t understand that what was going on in the early 90’s is not going on in the 2000’s. That’s just like when Rap started, it evolved and changed from Grand Master Flash, it changed from Slick Rick, BDP to KRS 1 it evolved to 2Pac, Nas, Biggie and Jay z. Now, is evolved to Jeezy, Rick Ross and with these kids coming in and doing a lot of different dances it’s evolving again! Kanye West is changing the style, the Drake’s are changing the styles, and so the people who were used to the 2Pac’s may not be ready to except what the Kanye’s and the Drake’s are doing. I don’t think Hip Hop is in a bad state, it’s in a caterpillar state ready to blossom and bloom into a butterfly, so you got to get with the times.

Now that you just mentioned the Diplomats thing, yeah I agree with that because it’s also going to show how a family can break up and make up. It’s also going to bring Hip Hop back into a tighter fit unit. It’s saying that we don’t need to beef with each other too much because it doesn’t get you anywhere. People will say ‘Look what happened when Diplomats broke up, now they are back together look at how powerful they are again’. If we all came up not just as a group but the U.S artists and overseas artists and formed one unit we can make this Hip Hop thing into a major conglomerate. It doesn’t just have to be U.S music it can be all countries coming together and doing songs together. This way we can make a major shift and KNOCK THE SH*T OUT OF EVERYBODY!!! (Laughs) and profit the same way.

So what has Dipset got planned will you dropping an album any time soon?

Usually we’ll drop a mixtape but it’s going to be the album, The Diplomats is going to have an album coming out. Everybody has their own umbrellas now; Diplomats Records has one. Jim Jones has Byrd Gang, Juelz Santana has Skull Gang, Cam has U.N and YA BOYYYY… FREEKEY!! Yes he has 730 Dips. While were growing 730 Dips is also coming out with mixtapes I have a mixtape out as we speak it’s called 'Gangsta’s Ambition'. I’m finishing up my second mixtape which is called ‘FREEKinstein’ and I’m also coming up with another joint called ‘Typolo’ (Laughs)

Will you be dropping an album?

Yeah I am dropping an album but I’m going to push mine back and keep the mixtapes rolling because we’re doing this Diplomats thing. Nobody wants to get smothered up with albums that’ll be too much to say I want a Freekey Zekey album when Freekey Zekey is all over the new Diplomats album. As a businessman I know how to fall back before I spring forward. My album is going to be called ‘Loyalty is everything’ which is also ‘L.I.E’. I named it that because there are a lot of people, you may have gone through this too, who have had people who you thought were behind you but they’ve turned their back on you. Or you’ve had people that you felt you were close to you and they did things to disrupt your thought about loyalty. That’s why I name it Loyalty is everything – L.I.E’. It’s a twist you see….I’ve been thinking…you know what I’m saying? Freekey be thinking!! (Laughs) But so far we’re just going to flood the streets with mixtapes and do as many videos as possible, keep ourselves relevant and everything, moving. It’s just a beautiful thing…I love the work!

Well I think that’s the thing with Diplomats you always put really good quality mixtapes out; the packaging was eye catching and colourful. They were like albums really. Was the whole concept of marketing your mixtapes like this something that you all worked on together?

We started this mixtape game; we started running hard and introduced it to the Rap game because of that fact that they did not like The Diplomat music!! Can you believe this?? Ok I’m going to give you a brief summary of how they were SHITTING on us!! They signed Cam’ron, he did well he sold 1 million records with his first album. All of us were on his album. So, we said alright we’re going to put The Diplomats out; they were like, ‘Ahhh I don’t think The Diplomats is going to make it’. We were like but we’re on Cam’s new album and it sold 1 million! So what we did was we started to produce our own music and put it out on the street. We didn’t rhyme over anyone’s beats we did our own beats, so we were actually giving out free albums to the street! That caught wind and they finally signed The Diplomats after we spent like $100,000 but we were recouping 1 million off our mixtapes. Now, we say we want to put Juelz album out and the same thing, ‘Ahhh we don’t think Juelz is good enough’. We were like; Juelz who did ‘Oh Boy’ was not going to make it?? Fine, so we flooded the street again and they signed Juelz! We wanted them to sign Jim, they were ‘Ahh Jim has got too much hair…I don’t know….I don’t know…he looks like an ape!’ (Laughs)

When we were getting turned down we turned that bad thing into a good thing because now our mixtapes were selling so good we was making money of that. It also introduced the whole Rap game into how you could market yourself. So, really we helped the whole Rap game to market them selves and now everybody wants to do mixtapes. Doing the mixtapes created a domino effect; it made the DJ’s start to get money which turned the DJ’s up and made them important, so we strengthened the economy! Which helped magazine, artists getting interviews so you know it was a good thing. We turned a bad situation into a phenomenal thing.

Actually you've just hosted a mixtape for Rago Magazine's Global Status series how did that come about?

I’m a net worker so I’m everywhere, some people are never there! (Laughs) Basically I do my history and my homework that’s what people should do in this game. You don’t walk around and think people are going to find you, which they will when it gets to a certain point. I understand everybody’s struggle so, my manager Pone is on the internet and he’s always looking and finding things. He knows that we got to reach areas and boundaries where people are at and we can’t get to because we’re located in the States. So, I love going places where I’m not supposed to! It’s new territory to me and come from doing my homework and it’s all good.

Where are you from?

I’m from Wolverhampton.

I asked you that because I was in Miami a few weeks ago and I’m sure the whole of Europe and Wolverhampton was there! (Laughs)  In London and Wolverhampton they must have been like, ‘F**k that we’re going to Miami!’ When they saw me, Cam and Jim there was so much love that if I was super emotional I would have cried then and there because the love was phenomenal!

Did you have a show in Miami?

Cam was shooting a video for Vado’s ‘Speaking in Tongues’ I just thought I’d go down there and to support him….plus I wanted my video SHINE!!! (Laughs) So we went out there and everybody was out there! The UK was in the game!! They showed so much love, I love the UK.

Where can people find out more about Freeky Zekey?

If you want to get hold of YA BOYYY…FREEKEY, then you can log onto twitter @freekey730 or you get at your boy on Facebook which is Freekey Zekey Extra. If you need some business information you log on to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if it’s about that paper then you do that! The lights have to stay on and will stay on. If you want to do features or do shows I won’t tear your head off but ya boy needs to eat!

Is there anything else you want to add before I go?

Just 730 Dips is a major movement also we’re down in the south in North Carolina, we rocking. ‘Gangsta’s Ambition’ is out right now so make sure you Google that, you can download that anywhere. 730 music group is here! Just remember it’s YA BOYYYY….FREEKEY!! Stand up, you should lie down for nothing unless I’m on top of you girls!! (Laughs)

Freekey thanks for such an entertaining interview!!

Ok sweetheart.

Interview by Jai Boo
www.myspace.com/jaiboowolftown